Blackhawks dive into spring sports action

CHENEY — No sooner has one sports season ended than a second has begun as Blackhawks traditional spring sports teams swung into action last week.

Baseball

The Blackhawks (0-2) are looking for their first win in their return to the Greater Spokane League as a 3A school — but then they haven’t played at home yet either, as of press time, April 20. Cheney dropped its first two games of the season, 10-7 at Ferris, April 15 and 9-3 at Lewis and Clark, April 16.

Isaac Nesbitt led Cheney’s seven-hit attack against Ferris with a pair of singles, with Karl Barsness doubling to drive in two runs and while also scoring a run. The Blackhawks managed just four singles at LC while committing three errors.

Soccer

The Blackhawks (0-3) are also still looking for their first win on the pitch, losing the season-opener 3-2 to visiting Mt. Spokane on April 12, falling 4-1 to Lewis and Clark on April 14 and 2-1 in a shootout loss April 19 at Central Valley.

Results for the Mt. Spokane game were not available at press time, April 20. LC opened a 3-0 lead last Wednesday before the Blackhawks got on the board via a penalty kick by Garrett Heuett in the 52nd minute, with the Tigers out-shooting Cheney 17-3.

After Caden Goransen put CV up 1-0 with a late-first half goal, it was Ryan Fagerland who got the equalizer for Cheney in the 52nd minute. Neither team scored in overtime, and the Bears managed to secure the win via a 4-3 margin in the shootout, with Dawson Heuett, Carson Fisk and Garrett Heuett scoring for Cheney.

Softball

The Lady Blackhawks haven’t wasted any time introducing themselves to the GSL — knocking off Ferris 14-3 in five innings in the season opener, April 14, and then virtually repeating the performance two days later by whitewashing Lewis and Clark 12-0, also in five innings, to open the season at 2-0.

Bella King pitched a complete game for the win against the Saxons while CC Morton led Cheney’s 14-hit offense with three hits, including a pair of home runs. King was 2 for 3 with four RBIs at the plate against the Tigers, with Madison McDowell striking out 10 and allowing just three hits for the win in the pitching circle.

Tennis

New Cheney men’s head coach Dan Estock came close to getting his first win in the Blackhawks season opener at Gonzaga Prep, but ended up short as Cheney lost 4-3.

Singles results were:

Jack Wendle (G) d. Alex Rose (C) 4-3, 4-1

Brandon Blazekovic (C) d. Jayden Blewett (G) 4-1, 4-1

Taichi Inotani (G) d. Alex Bowman (C) 4-0, 4-0

Jessie Meliton (G) d. Sam Laughton (C) 4-3, 4-3

In a non-counted extra game, Cheney’s Colin Chen defeated G-Prep’s Henry Seipp, 4-3, 2-4, 4-1

Doubles results were:

Alex Rose & Brandon Blazekovic (C) d. Jack Wendle and Jayden Blewett 4-3, 3-4, (12-10)

Alex Bowman and Sam Laughton (C) d. Taichi Inotani & Jessie Meliton 4-3, 4-3

G-Prep win by default.

“This contest will not be considered a league match,” Estock said in an email. “We played best of three sets using a Fast 4 scoring system.”

Under the Fast 4 system, the first player or team to win four no-ad games – games that if they go to deuce, the next point wins – takes the set. The third set is a 10-point tiebreaker, first to 10 points and is ahead by two points wins.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.