Medical Lake softball prospers early with solid hitting, pitching

Additional work in the summer appears to be paying dividends for the Medical Lake girls’ softball team.

Heading into spring break they were 0-1 in Northeast A League play, 4-2 overall and hitting the ball well having scored 10 or more runs in four of their first five contests.

Medical Lake comes off a 6-13 season and sixth-place 5-9 Northeast A League finish for Tim Blakely, who starts his fourth year as head coach and 10th with the program.

“Turnout is down a bit from years past but the quality is better,” Blakely said. “The girls are playing summer ball, a lot of ASA (American Softball Association) ball.” Nearly everyone on varsity and four to five on JV are involved.

The team has four seniors, seven juniors and two sophomores.

Senior Braydn Wegner is a combination pitcher and second base, while Kaitlyn Pruitt is a right fielder. Rachel Stanfil has been solid at catcher. Claire Dormaier was at shortstop but suffered an injury that will put her on the shelf for an undetermined amount of time.

The loss of Dormaier is crucial because shortstop is much like the quarterback or point guard position.

Wegner and Carpenter will likely fill in there. “We have a lot of talent that we can move around,” Blakely said.

Juniors on the team include center fielder Hailey Hostetter, who hit the first home run of her career earlier against East Valley.

Sarah Mayer was a right fielder last year but has moved in to play first base. Taylor Pavao is in center. Right fielder Annika Redell and Lorren Johnson, a catcher and utility player, are both first-year varsity players.

Alex Steinmetz, who plays outfield and first base, returns but has been limited by illness so far, Blakely said.

Hannah Petek, a sophomore, is the returning left fielder and a second-team All Northeast A selection as a freshman. Pitcher/first baseman Taylor Carpenter is considered a player that can play anywhere on the left side of the infield.

Strengths for the team are pitching, Blakely said. “Our pitching, outside of one game this year, has been spot-on,” he said. The duo of Wegner and Carpenter has been stingy allowing runs. “That’s a good one-two punch.”

Pitching has been complimented by what Blakely called an “excellent” offense. They have scored over 10 runs in four games. “We’re seeing the ball and hitting it really well,” Blakely said.

The hitting improvement has been a work-in-progress with the help of nonleague games. “With our hitting and base running, hitting is contagious,” Blakely said. “The girls start seeing players get base hits and just follow behind them.”

Another key stat is that just over half have been for extra bases. Scoreless innings have been minimal so far.

If there is a concern it is with defense. “Our defense is not where we want it to be right now,” Blakely said. “If we can knock our errors down to zero OR two a game it would be great.”

Medical Lake returns to NEA play with a rematch against Chewelah (1-0 NEA, 6-1 overall) who beat the Cardinals 3-1, March 31. They played this past Tuesday, April 12. Saturday Medical Lake travels to Freeman for a doubleheader that begins at 11 a.m.

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