Lady Blackhawks repeat as District 7 champs

Last year, the Cheney High softball team notched a couple firsts for the Lady Blackhawks program - their first ever Great Northern League title and first ever District 7 championship. And while this year's team may not have captured the regular season crown, they did put themselves into the CHS record books with a first of their own.

The Lady Blackhawks got hot at just the right time, winning three straight games to repeat as District 7 champions, and in the process earn the No. 1 seed into a regional glue-in game with the Central Washington Athletic Conference's No. 4 seed this weekend. Cheney knocked off East Valley, 9-5 and Pullman, 14-12, in elimination games and jumped to an early 7-0 lead en route to beating regular-season champions West Valley, 11-6 last Saturday.

"We're definitely peaking at the right time," head coach Gary Blake said.

The Lady Blackhawks got a little help from the Eagles in taking the early lead, as all seven of their second-inning runs were unearned. In fact, they all came with two outs.

Courtney Johnstone, Courtney Hanson and Kara Johnstone each singled with one out to load the bases at West Valley. After Alyson Dassow struck out, the floodgates opened.

Shelby Melton began the onslaught by reaching base on an error by the West Valley shortstop, scoring Courtney Johnstone. Rachel Barsness then stroked a three-RBI double, Cheyanne Gleave almost matched her with a two-RBI double, and Maddie Kallsen ended the scoring with a two-run home run.

"And suddenly, we were ahead seven to nothing," Blake said.

West Valley struck back with three runs in the bottom of the third, but Cheney answered with three of their own in the top of the fourth, one in the fifth and held on for the win. Kallsen was 2 for 4 with three RBIs while Barsness, Gleave, Meghan Krantz, Hansen and Kara Johnstone each had a pair of hits.

Gleave got the win on the mound, giving up six runs on 12 hits with one strikeout. Most importantly, she issued no free passes - no walks and no batters hit by pitch.

"Actually, not even a wild pitch or a passed ball scored a batter in that game," Blake said of the effort of both Gleave and Melton at catcher.

To get to Saturday's district title game, Cheney had to not only beat East Valley on May 10, but also do something they hadn't been able to do in four previous attempts this season - beat Pullman.

The Lady Blackhawks broke a 5-5 tie with six runs in the fourth, getting a two-RBI double by Gleave, a two-RBI single by Kara Johnstone, RBI single by Courtney Johnstone and an RBI walk by Macie Despino. Pullman chipped away at Cheney's lead with two runs in the bottom of the inning and in the fifth.

In the sixth, Cheney extended their lead to five with RBI singles by Kara Johnstone and Barsness, with Johnstone subsequently scoring on an error by the Greyhounds shortstop. Pullman attempted to rally with three runs in their last at bat, but fell short.

Gleave got the win on the mound and was also 3 for 4 at the plate with two RBIs. Courtney Johnstone was 4 for 5 with two RBIs, with Barsness 3 for 4, Kara Johnstone and Melton 2 for 4 and Kallsen 2 for 5.

Over the three playoff games Barsness was 8 for 14, Krantz and Gleave were both 6 for 12 and Kallsen 5 for 11. Gleave got the win in all three games.

Blake said he felt the team would have felt more confident playing West Valley, who Cheney split the season series with 2-2, in the final elimination game. In the end, it may have kept his players looser.

"(The pressure was) not on us," Blake said. "Nobody expected us to win either of those games - except us."

Cheney now awaits the outcome of the CWAC tournament to determine their opponent this Saturday. As of Tuesday, top-seeded Othello and second-seed Ellensburg awaited the winners of loser-out games between No. 3 Selah and No. 6 Ephrata, and No. 4 East Valley-Yakima and No. 5 Wapato, with the games determining the four seeding positions taking place today, May 19, in Selah.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].