Lady Blackhawks face Woodland in state opener

The Cheney High softball team knows who it’s to play to open state 2A softball action, where they’re playing and when. What they don’t know just yet is what they will be facing in first-round opponent Woodland High School.

The Lady Blackhawks, 19-2, will face the Beavers (18-3) of southwest Washington at 10 a.m. Friday at Selah’s Carlon Park softball complex. Woodland won the Greater St. Helens League with an 11-1 record, but lost to WF West of the Evergreen Conference in District 4 championship play, ending up with the district’s No. 3 seed to state.

They finished the regular season with a 7-4 non-league loss to 1A Montesano.

“They must have had some pretty good teams in there if an 18-3 team finished third,” Cheney head coach Gary Blake said.

According to MaxPreps, the Beavers have scored 171 runs will allowing just 36. They are currently ranked seventh in the state 2A with a .857 winning percentage. At one point, Blake said they were ranked No. 1, until a 4-3 loss to currently sixth-ranked league opponent Ridgefield on May 2 knocked them from the ranks of the unbeaten.

The Beavers likely have some state experience as they have four seniors on their roster who would’ve been freshmen during their last appearance in Selah in 2015. That resulted in a fourth-place finish and ended a run of three straight state trips, which began with a loss to Connell in the 2013 1A title game.

Cheney has scored 233 runs overall while allowing 80, and enters Friday’s game ranked third with a .905 winning percentage. The Lady Blackhawks have won four straight District 7 titles and has been Great Northern League champion twice in the past four years.

But none of those district titles led to a trip to Selah. The last time Cheney softball appeared at the state tournament was 2012, going 1-2 to miss the trophy round.

Both teams do share a similar experience — both lost their final regular-season games to non-league opponents that are on level below them in the 1A classification. Woodland dropped a 7-4 decision to Montesano while Cheney suffered a 13-10 setback at Deer Park, both coming May 21.

The Stags put up nine runs before the Lady Blackhawks even got on the board, or got their offense going for that matter. Cheney managed three hits through the first five innings before finding their bats again, scoring five runs in the sixth and seventh, but eventually falling short.

Blake said he wasn’t too concerned with the results, as long as they don’t bring whatever funk they were in with them this weekend.

“I think their heads were already at state,” Blake said. “But it showed you can’t go in looking past anybody.”

Looking back at the season, Blake said he could only think of three other times when the Lady Blackhawks didn’t play well, one being a doubleheader split with fellow state participant East Valley. Each time, Cheney rebounded with either an impressive win, or in the cast of the Knights, and eight-game winning streak.

“Other than those four games, we’ve played pretty consistent ball,” he added.

Should Cheney beat Woodland, they would play the winner of the Sedro Woolley-Port Angles game at 4 p.m. Friday. A loss would put them into the consolation bracket against the loser of that game at 2 p.m.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].