Lady Blackhawks rally for pair of softball wins

See a photo gallery from the event here.

The Cheney High softball team found itself in a somewhat unusual position last week -needing to rally to keep its perfect record intact.

In the end, the Lady Blackhawks did that in two of three games, seeing their nine-game winning streak come to an end in the week's finale at Sandpoint. Cheney notched wins over Pullman, 13-7, Medical Lake, 9-8, before falling 5-3 to the Vikings of Idaho's 4A classification.

The most dramatic comeback took place Friday against the visiting Lady Cardinals of the Northeast A League. Medical Lake opened an 8-1 lead through five-and-a-half innings, with Cheney's lone tally coming on Meghan Krantz's towering home run to left field in the second inning.

Meanwhile, the Lady Blackhawk hitters struggled against ML starter Suzanne Shores, whose drop ball led to a lot of ground outs, Cheney head coach Gary Blake said. The sophomore faced 17 batters through five innings, just two above the minimum.

But in the bottom of the sixth, the Lady Blackhawks got a bead on Shores, with Krantz's three-run home run cutting ML's lead to 8-4.

In the final at bat, Cheney pulled within 8-6 on RBI singles by Courtney Hanson and Rachel Barsness. Barsness came around to score on a pair of wild pitches, and after an intentional walk loaded the bases with one out, Logan Krantz's two-RBI double gave Cheney the win.

"That's a long ways to come back, seven runs down with two (innings) to go," Blake said.

Maddie Kallsen got the win in relief of starter Maria Guglielmo, giving up one run on two hits while striking out four and walking one in two innings of work. Barsness, Meghan and Logan Krantz and Shelby Melton led Cheney offensively with two hits apiece.

April 11 against visiting Pullman, Cheney fell behind early 6-2, but rallied with six runs in the bottom of the fourth. The Lady Blackhawks scored on several Greyhound errors, a Meghan Krantz two-RBI double and a Logan Krantz RBI triple to take a lead they never relinquished.

Meghan Krantz was 4 for 4 with four RBIs, Logan Krantz was 3 for 4 and three RBIs and Kallsen was 2 for 3 with two RBIs at the plate. Guglielmo got the win, pitching one of her best games this season, Blake said, by giving up three earned runs on seven hits, two walks and a pair of strikeouts.

Saturday, Sandpoint scored all five of their runs in the third inning for the win. Kallsen took the loss in her first start since returning from a season-opening injury, while Barsness led at the plate, going 2 for 3 and scoring two runs.

Blake attributed the slow starts in the past three games to opponents pitching prior to the break. Cheney was averaging about 18 runs per game in going 7-0, helped a lot by 5-6 pitch walks.

Opponents pitching was much better last week, especially from Medical Lake and Sandpoint who threw lefthanders at the Lady Blackhawks. Blake said his hitters were going to the plate looking simply to get on base.

"I want you to go up there because you want to go up there to hit the ball," Blake said he told them after Sandpoint. And after reviewing game film on Monday, he said his players agreed.

"'We looked at too many pitches,'" he said was the consensus.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].

See a photo gallery from the event here.

Hawks Box

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Runs Hits Errors

Pullman 1 0 3 2 0 0 1 7 7 5

Cheney 2 0 0 6 2 3 x 13 15 4

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Runs Hits Errors

Medical Lake 3 0 4 0 0 1 0 8 12 1

Cheney 0 1 0 0 0 3 5 9 10 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Runs Hits Errors

Cheney 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 3 5 3

Sandpoint 0 0 5 0 0 0 x 5 6 1