There could be tougher roads to take to earn a berth in Saturday’s District 7 softball tournament at Lakeside for the Medical Lake Cardinals.
But for now the route either travels through, or stops at Deer Park (15-5) where the Cardinals (6-12) met the Stags May 19 in a loser-out game.
In traveling to Deer Park, Medical Lake seeks to halt a skid that has seen the team lose 10 of its last 11 games, the break coming last week with a 15-5 win over Newport on May 12. That win snapped an eight-game losing streak.
But the problems continued last Saturday when Colville swept a doubleheader 16-6 and 13-1.
“We had 17 hits that game so that helps,” Medical Lake head coach Tim Blakely said of his team’s win over Newport. “(We were) putting the ball in play and they were solid base hits, too.”
Claire Dormaier and Taylor Pavao each went 3 for 4 with three RBIs.
That offensive effort seemed to carry over to Saturday where Medical Lake led 6-3 through three innings. And then the roof caved in with the Indians scoring five runs in the bottom of the third and adding another five in the fifth
“I think we had them on their heels a little bit in the beginning and then, for whatever reason, they started clicking on all cylinders,” Blakely said. Motivation might have come because it was Senior Day, he added. Dormaier’s double was the only extra-base hit out of the six hits the Cardinals got in the opener.
After trailing 1-0 in the first, Colville scored four runs in their first trip to the plate. It stayed that way until the fourth when the home team scored five more and then got to go home early by scoring four more in their half of the fifth which invoked the 10-run mercy rule.
Colville comes with a little bit of awe factor attached.
“We’re going up against teams like Colville, they graduated 12 girls last year; they’ve still got the experience of 13 straight trips to state,” Blakely said.
Medical Lake was held to just five hits from starting pitcher Gracie Schauls who struck out seven.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)