Heading into the 2015 season, Cheney High softball head coach Gary Blake knew he had a pretty good hitting team, just not how good. Twelve games in, he’s still a little uncertain if the Lady Blackhawks overall season batting average of .499 is product of great bats, suspect pitching or a combination of both.
Off to its best start in years, Cheney kept its perfect season alive with five more wins last week, including Great Northern doubleheader sweeps of Pullman and East Valley. In between, the Lady Blackhawks broke a 5-5 tie with three runs in the top of the fifth en route to an 11-7 non-league win at Lakeland High School in Rathdrum, Idaho.
Cheney pounded out 27 hits Saturday to sweep the second-place Knights at home. Senior Jeena Bushnell, whose hitting .484 for the season, went 3 for 4 at the plate with two RBIs as the Lady Blackhawks broke game one open with six runs in the fifth inning for the 13-7 win. In game two, Maddie Kallsen was 2 for 2 with a pair of RBIs while Adrianna Suiter drove in three more runs as Cheney scored in every inning but the second for a 10-5 win.
Overall hitting leaders on the afternoon were Kallsen at 3 for 7 with 4 RBIs, Suiter 3 for 8 with three RBIs, Bushnell 4 for 6 and two RBIs and Meghan Krantz at 3 for 6.
As impressive as Cheney’s 27 hits were, more impressive for Blake was the fact that the Lady Blackhawks hitters never struck out against East Valley pitching.
Kallsen (4-0) got the win on the mound in game two while the Lady Blackhawks No. 1 starter Julia Boyd ran her record to 8-0 with the win in game one.
Boyd made it seven in a row Wednesday by striking out 11 Hawks batters in Cheney’s 11-7 win at Lakeland. Rachel Barsness led Cheney with three hits at the plate, including a double.
Kallsen and Boyd each got a win against visiting Pullman Tuesday, with Boyd scattering three hits while striking out seven and walking only one in shutting out the Greyhounds 14-0 in game one.
Offensively, Suiter was 4 for 7 with eight RBIs on the afternoon, including a solo home run – her third of the year – in Cheney’s seven-run third inning of game two’s 17-7 win. Barsness was 6 for 8 with a pair of RBIs.
The wins move Cheney to 12-0 overall, 9-0 in GNL play and a comfortable three games ahead of second-place East Valley. The team stats reflect that success.
Barsness leads the Lady Blackhawks in hitting with a .660 average, followed by Kallsen at .622, Boyd and Suiter at .545 and Krantz at .536. And while hitting has been the story so far, Boyd carries a 2.625 ERA with 72 strikeouts and 19 walks in 48 innings and the team has a fielding percentage of .930.
“That’s an excellent percentage,” Blake said.
Cheney will get a truer test of their hitting prowess Thursday as they face former-GNL rival Deer Park in a non-league match up. The Northeast A League Stags feature three-year varsity starter Kylie Sweeney, whose been averaging 11-12 strikeouts per game this season.
Cheney returns to league action Saturday, hosting fourth-place West Valley in a doubleheader.
Blake said the games last week with Lakeland and East Valley were good for his team, going seven innings finally and requiring the Lady Blackhawks to face some adversity by coming from behind. Even with the perfect start, he thinks his players are still keeping things in perspective.
“They’re not overconfident,” Blake said. “They still understand you need to feel you can beat teams only as long as you bring your ‘A’ game.”
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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