Medical Lake makes walks work in win

It's certainly early, just one game into the season, but Medical Lake softball coach Tim Blakely got some reassurances in last Thursday's 11-1 nonleague victory over Kellogg, Idaho.

Going into the season he had concerns about pitching after losing his two aces to graduation.

Chelsea Hamby helped quell those fears by allowing just one run on three hits while striking out six. "We had a great performance from Chelsea Hamby," Blakely said.

But more important, even though they too were limited to just seven hits, was the patience his batters had at the plate.

"We knew our hitting zone," Blakely said. "We had 10 base-on-balls so I want to praise the girls for not swinging at pitches out of the zone."

Medical Lake got two hits from Kayla Pruitt while Hamby, Glori Cheevers, Rachel Stanfil, Alex Steinmetz and Maleeka Wegner each had one.

It was Hamby's single in the bottom of the first that drove in a pair of runs and essentially gave her the runs she needed. But just in case, the Cardinals put it away scoring eight runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Leading just 2-1 after Jordan Schwartz hit a home run for the Wildcats, the Cardinals got walks from Stanfil, Wegner, Steinmetz and Taylor Pavao, scoring Stanfil.

The next two Medical Lake batters were outs but then Pruitt singled, driving in Steinmetz. Hamby and Bradyn Wegner walked, followed by an RBI single from Stanfil that scored Pruitt. Kellogg errors led to runs by Hamby and Wegner. A Maleeka Wegner single scored Stanfil and the inning ended with a fly out.

Medical Lake's scoring wrapped up in the bottom of the fifth as Clair Dormaier was issued a one-out walk and later scored on Pruitt's second hit giving the Cardinals a 10-run lead which invoked the "mercy rule" and it was game over.

"We really, really hit the ball hard," Blakely said. "The reason we're down on the hits, they just happened to be right at somebody." Six led to Kellogg errors and had their infield in somewhat of a state of fear.

The Kellogg third baseman didn't want to see a couple of the Cardinals get up to the plate and moved further and further back, Blakely said.

Medical Lake was rained out of a Monday nonleague game at Asotin. "It will be rescheduled at a later date," Blakely said.

That was the Cardinals' only game this week in advance of a busy last week of March when they kick off Northeast A League play and travel to Newport Tuesday, March 31. Medical Lake is at Cheney in a nonleaguer Wednesday, April 1 and host Chewelah Thursday, April 2 before taking spring break off.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.