By PAUL DELANEY
Staff Reporter
It's proving to be just plain hard to deliver a knock-out punch to the Cheney SummerHawks AA American Legion baseball team lately.
Blasted 10-0 in game one of their doubleheader against powerful Lewis & Clark on Saturday, the SummerHawks came back to edge LC in the nightcap.
Then, in almost the same scenario this past Monday, Cheney was routed in their first game against Shadle Park 14-3, only to “10 run ‘em” in the second game, 14-4 according to manager Matt Crawford.
With the split, the SummerHawks ran their AA South league record to 6-8 as they face a very busy week with games this past Tuesday at Medical Lake, Wednesday at home against Whitman County at 5:30 p.m. before finishing with three games in as many days. Thursday the SummerHawks host Ferris at 5:30 p.m. then they travel to University to meet the league's top team in a 5:30 contest and conclude league play Saturday when they travel to meet the Saxons in an 11 a.m. match-up.
In Monday's opener against Shadle, “they just hit the ball really well,” Crawford said. And they hit it well early roughing up starter Ryan Pederson for seven runs in the first. You know it isn't your day when the first three batters you face connect for a double, triple and a single.
“Ryan was throwing strikes, but Shadle was just hitting the ball,” Crawford explained.
Cheney got their runs in the first when Dalton Harding singled and later scored on a Matt Walker double. In the third, Logan Hennessy opened the inning with a triple, later scoring on Walker's single. The SummerHawks' final run came in the seventh when Harding, Hessessey and Thomas Townsend all singled.
That momentum seemed to carry over to the second game as Cheney scored three times in the first, added three more in the second before putting the game away with a huge eight-run fifth that evoked the 10-run rule.
The SummerHawks batted around in their 3-0 first with Harding and Hennessy getting base hits and Townsend loading the bases with a walk. Kadeem Smalls' walk sent one run across. Poyner Westerfield singled in a run and kept the bases loaded before another base-on-ball to Pederson scored the last run of the inning.
Cheney pushed their lead to 6-0 when Harding singled and went to second on an overthrow. Hessessey's sacrifice sent Harding to third before singles by Townsend and Smalls netted each an RBI.
According Crawford, the big fifth inning started off a little auspiciously when Smalls struck out. But that was followed by walks to Westerfield, a timely single by Pederson, plus two more walks to Travis Wood and Max Harris, the last of which made it a 7-0 game.
Then came a flood of hits with Harding doubling and Hennessy, Townsend and Walker all doubling to make it a 14-4 game in a game that went just five innings.
The split with LC mirrored the Shadle game, but just in the first game. The 10-0 win by LC didn't seem to phase the SummerHawks one bit as they came back with a
defensive game that went six innings before it was broken open.
Cheney would score all five of their runs in that inning playing small ball. Harding and Townsend opened with singles. Smalls was then hit by a pitch to load the bases. Singles by Pederson, Westerfield and Harris all scored runs.
LC, however, isn't among the league's top teams for nothing as the Tigers scored four in their half of the sixth to make for an interesting finish.
Dalton Harding went six innings on the mound for Cheney to get the win while Harris cleaned it all up with a relief appearance in the seventh, allowing one walk and getting the save.
Cheney is currently battling for one of the six playoff spots and everything has to go pretty much perfectly down the stretch. But in Crawford's eyes, nothing seems out of reach.
“To get 10-runned and come back for big wins against some of the top teams in the league is great for us,” Crawford said. “If we focus, hustle and play hard we can beat anybody.”
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected]
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