By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
Summer's heating up, and so apparently are the Summer Hawks.
With three wins last week Cheney's American Legion AA team stretched its winning streak to five, giving them a 6-4 mark in the Spokane American Legion's American League West Division and 9-4 overall. The Summer Hawks swept a doubleheader with Whitman County last Tuesday in Colfax, 7-1 and 6-4, and followed that with a 12-3 win over Mead Thursday night at AK Jackson Field in Spokane.
Cheney got what manager Ed Franklin called a “pitching gem” by Jeremy Alderman in game one against Whitman County. Alderman allowed one run on a double and a single in the third, scattering five more hits as he went the distance, striking out eight and walking two.
Cheney's bats gave him support, as did a defense that played errorless ball. The Summer Hawks got on board in the first with Parker Franklin scoring on Josh Maio's fielder's choice grounder to short. Maio stole second, advancing to third and scoring on a pair of passed balls.
In the third the Summer Hawks capitalized on a Cougars' error, a couple of walks and a fielder's choice grounder to second by Franklin scoring Jon Miller. Cheney added insurance in the fifth with a pair of runs on bases-loaded RBI singles by Chris Hammer and Cody Ableman and a bases-loaded 2RBI double by Drew Henry.
Alderman was 2 for 4 to lead Cheney's seven hit attack, with Ableman 1 for 2, Henry, Hammer and Maio each 1 for 3 and Dakota Torkelson 1 for 4.
“Whitman County never really threatened except for the one run they scored in the third,” Franklin said. Franklin added the Summer Hawks had a nice game defensively with no errors, something that didn't stick around for game two.
Cheney countered Whitman County's first inning run with three in the bottom of the second, managing just one hit but being the beneficiaries of a pair of Cougars' errors, a hit batter and good base running to score Ableman, Brandon Ware and Justin Pope. The Summer Hawks added three in the bottom of the third with an RBI single from Alderman and a throwing error by the Cougars' third baseman on a grounder hit by Maio that enabled Alderman and Ableman to score.
After that Cheney's bats went cold, and Whitman County crept back into the game, scoring two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth that were helped along by four Cheney errors.
Torkelson got the win on the mound, coming on in the fourth inning in relief of starter Maio and Spenser Rassier to face 19 batters, giving up three runs, one earned, on two hits while striking out five and walking four.
“Torkelson once again came in and pitched a nice four innings,” Franklin said.
Thursday's game with Mead likely shouldn't have been as close as it was, with Cheney's defense committing six errors while offensively making mistakes on the base paths. The Summer Hawks took a 4-0 lead in the top of the second on an RBI double from Hammer, a bases loaded walk from Henry and a bunt sacrifice by Franklin scoring Miller and Kent Weatherbee.
Cheney added two more in the third on a one-out, 2RBI single by Hammer, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. The Summer Hawks made it 8-0 in the fourth, benefiting from three no out walks with two scoring on Alderman's squeeze bunt.
Mead made things interesting with three runs in the bottom of the fourth, helped by a pair of Cheney errors, a double and a single, a passed ball, one walk and a wild pitch. But in the fifth Cheney essentially put the game out of reach, getting an RBI bunt single from Henry, an RBI bloop single to shallow right by Franklin and a 2RBI single to left by Alderman – all with two outs. Alderman was caught in a run down between second and third to end the inning.
Torkelson got the win in relief of Alderman in the fourth, striking out the side in the fifth and getting a pair of strikeouts in the seventh, the final one coming with bases loaded. Hammer was 2 for 4 with 3RBI at the plate, with Alderman 1 for 4 and 4RBI.
Cheney maintains a busy schedule this week, hosting Pullman Tuesday and then traveling to West Valley on Wednesday and Freeman Thursday before returning home to host a pod in the annual Fourth of July Wood Bat Classic. Other teams in the pod are Chewelah, Rogers, West Valley and the Royals from Fort McLeod, British Columbia.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
Summer Hawks'
Wooden Bat Games
Friday, July 2
Chewelah vs. Cheney, 3:30 p.m.
Cheney vs. West Valley, 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 3
Cheney vs. Rogers, 3:30 p.m.
Fort MacLeod vs. Cheney, 6 p.m.
(Additional games depend on team's
record in seeding games).
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