CHENEY – After winning their first four games, the Blackhawks softball team has done the reverse – lost their last four games in this year’s shortened Greater Spokane League season.
The three latest setbacks came last week, a 9-4 loss at home to Central Valley April 27, then a pair of losses to Gonzaga Prep, 7-2 at home April 29 and 1-0 on the road the following day.
The latter may have been the toughest as the Bullpups and Blackhawks engaged in an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel, with Cheney’s Isabella King giving up no runs while scattering three hits, one walk and striking out five through the sixth inning. She was matched by G-Prep’s Bailey Benson, who kept the Blackhawks scoreless through seven, giving up just four hits while striking out seven.
But with one out in the bottom of the seventh, King met Benson for the third time at the plate, and while the latter had gone for 0 for 2, this time she delivered a 1-2 count pitch over the wall in left field for the walk-off home run win.
“It was a heck of a pitchers’ battle,” Cheney head coach Gary Blake said. “The only problem is the wrong team won.”
Lindsey Hagreen, Pyper Cagle, Tatum Sloan and Madison McDowell each went 1 for 3 at the plate for Cheney, Cagle’s double in the top of the seventh being the only multi-base hit for the Blackhawks, but followed by Sloan’s single that landed Cagle at third with one out, part of their only serious scoring threat too.
Thursday the Blackhawks and G-Prep had better luck hitting, each with eight, and much different results, albeit better for the Bullpups, who broke open a 2-0 game with a five-run top of the sixth for the win. Cheney mounted a rally in the bottom of the inning, led by Hagreen’s lead-off double and followed by Parker Cagle’s single, advancing Hagreen to third.
Both eventually came around to score on a single by King and a single by Sloan before a strikeout and ground out to Benson in the pitcher’s circle ended the threat. Cheney went three up and three down in their final at bat.
Parker and Pyper Cagle both went 2 for 3 at the plate, with Sedona Erickson also getting a hit. McDowell took the loss in the pitching circle, going the distance in allowing two earned runs on eight hits with four walks and eight strikeouts. The Blackhawks defense committed four errors.
A six-run fourth by the visiting Bears on April 27 turned a 3-0 game into a 9-0 affair, with Cheney scoring two runs in the bottom of the inning and again in the sixth in the loss. Pyper Cagle was 2 for 3 with 2RBI to lead the Blackhawks nine-hit offense, with King getting the loss, giving up two earned runs on nine hits while walking four and striking out six as Cheney committed seven errors in the field.
The Blackhawks drop to 4-4 overall in the GSL with three games remaining, at home against University High on May 4 and away on May 6 and one at home with Mt. Spokane on May 7.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
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