Sweep of Pullman keeps Lady Blackhawks atop GNL

For a brief moment, the Cheney High softball team lost it's hitting ability, despite a 5-2 road win at Clarkston on April 24.

No worries, however. They found it four days later against Pullman, pummeling the hapless Greyhounds 19-0 and 20-7 in a home doubleheader sweep.

It's not as if Cheney couldn't hit at Clarkston, they managed 10 base knocks overall. But while some teams would be happy with that, the Lady Blackhawks are used to more, and for head coach Gary Blake, it's a matter of when those hits came.

"We had 10 hits, but we scattered them," Blake said Monday night.

Cheney had one hit in each inning, jumping to a 4-0 lead through three innings, a lead that was not really threatened. Kyla Olson had three hits, Maddie Kallsen two and Megan Krantz stroked a home run to lead Cheney offensively, with Kallsen pitching a complete game for the win.

In the first game against Pullman on Saturday, Kallsen was almost unhittable. The senior struck out five of the first six batters she faced, and ended up seven Ks, no walks and one hit through three innings.

Fortunately that was the length of the game as Cheney had 11 hits to capitalize on six Pullman errors, scoring 14 runs in the first inning before the Greyhounds could record an out. Logan Krantz had a two-RBI double and a two-run home run, Megan Krantz added three RBIs on a pair of singles with Olson and Courtney Hanson each adding a two-RBI double as Cheney scored about every way imaginable.

The Lady Blackhawks repeated that with five runs in the second, and the game was stopped on the 15 runs after three innings mercy rule.

In game two Cheney was equally as productive, scoring 20 runs on 16 hits in a game stopped on the 10-run rule after five innings. Kallsen and Logan Krantz had three hits each, including a pair of doubles for Kallsen, while Shyla Courchaine, Megan Krantz, Alexis Mitchell and Olson each had two hits.

Overall in the doubleheader, Cheney hit for a .550 batting average in game one, and .571 in game two.

Courchaine pitched four innings for the win, with Kallsen coming on in relief in the fifth, needing just 12 pitches to set Pullman down in order to end the game.

"She (Kallsen) was pretty much untouchable all day," Blake said.

Cheney moves its league record to 8-1, 15-1 overall - staying in first place with three games remaining. Those three games are key, as two are against likely GNL co-leader West Valley (7-1, 14-2) this Saturday, with the final being a home game with third-place East Valley (6-6, 8-8) on Tuesday, May 8.

The Eagles and Lady Blackhawks have battled each other atop the GNL standings for the past two season, with West Valley earning the regular season championship but losing to Cheney in the District 7 seeding games to regionals.

"If we can take one (on Saturday) that would give us any tiebreaker with them," Blake said. "Hopefully, we can play our 'A' game that day."

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].