Medical Lake softball splits opening week's games

Medical Lake was on both the giving and receiving end of offensive explosions in a pair of nonleague softball games to open their 2018 season.

The Cardinals opened the season with a 20-3 win in soggy Pullman over the Greyhounds March 17 before getting hammered by rival Cheney March 19 at Reinking Field.

"What a miserable day, it rained the whole day," Medical Lake head coach Tim Blakely said.

Having spent over two hours on the bus getting to Pullman, Blakely said he and the Greyhounds' coach said they would play as long as they could in hardly ideal conditions.

The turning point came in the third inning when the Cards scored 14 runs and were able to shorten the game to just five innings. Haley Musser and Chloe Hanson had three hits apiece, their first varsity hits. Taylor Carpenter limited Pullman to three hits.

In the opposite conditions - bright sunshine - last Monday, Medical Lake got off to a good start when Hannah Petek socked a solo home run over the centerfield fence in the bottom of the second to tie it at 1-1.

But Cheney broke the tie in the top of the third and then went on to score three runs in fourth and fifth before closing out the game with a four-run sixth. Shyla Courchaine had four hits, including three doubles for the Lady Blackhawks.

"We held Cheney down for a while," Blakely wrote in an email.

"A couple of mistakes in the defensive side, untimely hitting with runners in scoring position," led to the defeat.

Medical Lake jumps into a busy schedule with Northeast A League play which began with road trips to Colville March 20 and Deer Park, March 22. They are home for a March 27 game with Lakeside at 4 p.m. and at East Valley in a nonleague game March 28 before taking on Newport March 29 at 4 before spring break.

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