Cheney 17U defeats Cashmere 12-11 in extra innings

The Cheney Summerhawks 17U baseball team returned to its home field last week with a 12-11 win over Cashmere, July 14, in a game that went into extra innings, followed by a 20-7 loss to Northwest Premier, July 15. Cheney was set to play Omak, July 16, however the game was never officially scheduled.

The Summerhawks’ offense struggled against Cashmere early in the game. After being down 9-1 in the fifth inning, Cheney got their bats going to score two runs.

“Cashmere is a good fundamental team, they’re very respected,” head coach Austin Sharp said. “Our guys didn’t hit well in the first five innings and made some mental base running errors. In the fifth inning, I challenged them to do better.”

In the seventh inning, the Summerhawks scored six runs to force the game into extra innings. Cashmere scored two runs to lead 11-9 at the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the inning, Cheney scored two runs to tie the score 11-11. With one out, Cade VanWormer got the base hit to bring in Matthew Riggs for the winning run.

VanWormer was 3 for 5 with three RBIs for the day. Andrew Witt was 3 for 5 with two RBIs and two runs, Jack Peabody was 2 for 5 with two runs and Jeff Fix was 2 for 3 with an RBI and one run.

“In those last three innings, our bats were great,” Sharp said. “They battled and came back.”

In addition to his success at the plate, VanWormer (1-0) got his first win on the mound after he shared pitching duties with Logan Pratt and Riggs.

Unfortunately, Cheney couldn’t carry their offensive momentum into their rematch against Premier. Although the Summerhawks scored most of their runs late in the game, they could not catch up. At the plate, Trey Martin was 4 for 4 with a double, two RBIs and two runs. Austin Johnson was 1 for 2 with an RBI double. VanWormer was 2 for 4 with an RBI and Witt was 1 for 4 with two runs.

Riggs (2-5), Dylan Arthur and Witt shared pitching duties.

“I was proud of our pitchers for stepping in there,” Sharp said. “We just got hammered, it was a long game.”

Cheney (10-12) wrapped up their season Tuesday with a doubleheader against Northwest Premier’s 16U team. The Summerhawks lost their first game to Premier 16U, 14-5, in June.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].