By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
The luster seems to have been rubbed off the Cheney softball team's defense.
The Lady Hawks committed one error in their first 20 innings of play this season, but since that time has given up 17 miscues in their last 33 – five games resulting in five losses.
Cheney saw its overall record fall to 1-6 with three losses last week, an 11-5 setback in non-league action against 1A Lakeside on Wednesday, and a doubleheader loss to league-leading Colville on Saturday in Great Northern League play. Through it all, the Lady Hawks also struggled on the mound, something head coach Gary Blake thinks is contributing some to the errors, and at the plate, producing just 12 hits in three games.
Wednesday, the Lady Eagles used back-to-back singles and a home run for three first inning runs against Cheney starter Casey Alderman. After the Lady Hawks got on the board with a run in the third, Lakeside made it 7-1 with four more runs in the fifth.
But Cheney answered in the bottom of the frame, cutting the lead to just two on the strength of Vanity Thomas' three-run home run, and Mandy McDowell's blistering solo shot immediately following. The Lady Hawks could get no closer as Lakeside scored a run in the sixth, and three more in the seventh icing the win.
Alderman got the loss, giving up three runs, all earned, on four hits while striking out two and walking one. McDowell came on the fifth and gave up eight runs while striking out three and walking four.
McDowell, Thomas and Gracie Pitts led Cheney's offense with two hits each, and the Lady Hawks committed five errors.
Saturday, Cheney ran up against a talented Colville squad whose only loss this season was a 9-5 setback to Wenatchee, giving the defending GNL champs and 2008 2A state fourth-place finishers a split with the 4A Lady Panthers. Blake said the Lady Indians are a different team this year, and while they may not have the power they had last season, they are still a team loaded with good hitters.
Which is a good reason to keep errors to a minimum, something the Lady Hawks couldn't do. Colville took a 3-0 lead in game one with three runs in the top of the first, one unearned as a result of a Cheney error. The Lady Indians (4-0, 8-1) opened an 8-0 lead with five runs in the second, all unearned as a result of three Cheney errors, and went on to an 11-1 win in five innings.
Cheney's only run came in the bottom of the fifth.
Sophomore Nora Ifft led off with a single, taking a longer lead than normal at first that drew a throw from the Colville catcher. The throw sailed into right field, and Ifft managed to sprint home for the score.
The run proved to be the only time the Lady Hawks would cross the plate as Colville scored in every inning but the fourth and fifth, and limited Cheney to just three hits in a 7-0 shutout in the nightcap. Cheney managed just five hits for the doubleheader, Ifft's single along with a double by Sierra Vijarro in the first game, and singles by Thomas and Megan Ford (2) in the second. Alderman got the loss in game one, while Nicole Lane took the loss in the nightcap.
The losses drop Cheney to 0-4 in GNL play, 1-6 overall. Blake said people should remember that the Lady Hawks have started the league season against two of the GNL's top teams, and that there's still plenty of softball to be played.
As for the errors, Blake thinks much of that comes from his players trying to push things instead of relaxing.
“Errors are kind of like rabbits – they just seem to breed,” he said. “It's a mental thing more than anything else.”
The Lady Hawks have plenty of competition this week to help work things out. Cheney traveled to Connell on Wednesday, April 15, to face the 1A Lady Eagles, and returns home to face GNL rival West Valley (3-1, 4-2) in a doubleheader on Saturday, first game at noon.
Blake knows his team is capable of playing good defense, and consequently turning in some quality wins. They just need to remember how.
“They've done it. They need to know they can do it again,” he said.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com
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