New softball coach gets same old result

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

Medical Lake’s girl’s softball

team may remain winless through

14 games, but not hopeless.

The Cards suffered another pair

of Great Northern League defeats, 15-

5 and 16-2 to Pullman last Friday to

fall to 0-8 in the GNL and 0-14 overall.

The most recent setbacks came under

new coach – former assistant Tim

Blakley – who took over the helm

when Gai Daily recently resigned.

“I’ve been with the squad the entire

year so I’ve seen where we were

and where we’re at now and we’ve

made one heck of an improvement,”

Blakely said. “The girls are starting

to understand my thought process,

anyway.”

That appeared to be evident at

least early-on against Pullman.

Different than in most of the previous

games, the Cardinals jumped

off to a big early lead, but in keeping

with games gone by, a big inning did

Medical Lake in again.

The Cardinals scored four in the

.rst to lead off the game. Melaine

Hayes led off in a big way with a

triple and was followed on base

by Kat Campbell’s .elder’s choice.

Hayes would score on another

.elder’s choice from Nikki Boyd who

was out on the play.

A Nikki King single scored Campbell

and Cassie Shoben drove home

King with a single. The .nal run came

when Sabrinna Were singled home

Shoben. Boyd would double in the

second and Campbell socked a triple

in the fourth, but Medical Lake ended

up stranding four runners at third in

the opener, Blakely said.

The 10-run third was, as Blakely

put it, “One of those innings we’ve

been working at trying not having.”

Five errors contributed to the

double-digit scoring that erased the

4-2 Medical Lake lead.

In the second game, the Greyhounds

had another huge inning,

this time the third where they scored

12 times and led 14-0 before Medical

Lake got on the board. That happened

in the bottom of the fourth

when Paige Propeck walked, advanced

on a Kelby Wegner single and

scored on Shoben’s double.

Their .nal run came in the .fth

when Campbell reached on an error.

King singled with one out to send the

lead runner to second where Amelia

Cook singled home the .nal Cards’

run. King and Cook were both 2 for

3. Campbell and Shoben each had

doubles.

Medical Lake travels to Cheney

for a Saturday afternoon doubleheader

beginning at noon.

Paul Delaney can be reached at

pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.