The Cardinal softball team made some headway in Northwest A League play as this year’s late-starting season moved ahead with strong wins in a doubleheader against Riverside, but two losses to Freeman and Coleville.
Medical Lake vs. Freeman
Medical Lake took on the fourth place Scotties (5-4, 9-4) on the road on April 16, losing ground quickly in a 12-2 loss that left their batting cold.
Freeman came out quick, outscoring the Cards 4-2 in the first inning — and kept on going at-will after that, scoring at least one run in each of the game’s five innings.
Maddie McDowell started in the circle, pitching into the third inning before being relieved by Suzanne Shores to close the game. McDowell allowed seven runs on seven hits, six of them earned, four walks and three strikeouts on 61 pitches.
Shores had five runs on four hits, three walks and two strikeouts on 55 pitches.
Kylie Thompson supplied one of the two Cards runs via the teams only RBI of the game.
“I think our defense let us down,” head coach Tim Blakely said. “We committed quite a few errors in the game.”
Six errors, in fact.
“It was hard to try to make those errors up, especially when our bats weren’t rolling,” he said.
Medical Lake at Riverside
The Card’s prevailed twice in a decisive doubleheader in NEA action on Thursday, April 18, against the visiting Rams.
Medical Lake made quick work of the Rams (1-9,1-1,) in game one with a 16-1, three inning annihilation. It was a solid team effort, seeing the Card girls getting their 16 runs on 11 hits — all of them RBIs — in 22 at-bats. Eleven of their runs came in the third inning, invoking the 10-run rule and suspension of the game. Haile DeShazer and Kaylee Thompson each hit doubles, while Allison Duncan stole two bases.
“We held them at the top of the seventh on Suzzane’s strikeouts and the game was over.”
Head coach Tim Blakely
DeShazer got the win from the circle playing all three innings.
And Blakely’s decision to let the pitching streak ride out into game two of the doubleheader initially proved a good one in the 16-8 Card blowout.
With DeShazer keeping her place in the circle, she struck out six batters while allowing eight runs on as many hits.
Medical Lake had a 5-3 lead going into the top of the fourth when DeShazer suddenly gave up five runs and the lead.
With the Cards trailing 8-5, Blakely brought in Shores in relief, who shut the Rams’ batters down cold, allowing no runs, hits or walks, with seven strikeouts.
“She came in and she was on fire,” Blakely said.
The Card offense managed another run in the bottom of the fourth, and their bats came back strong in the bottom of the fifth with seven runs.
DeShazer, perhaps making up for her five-run fourth inning pitching, singled on a 3-1 count that brought two runners to the plate. The Card crew managed three more runs in the bottom of the sixth for the lead and the win.
Thompson hit a home run in the sixth, bringing in Musser for two more runs to close the game.
“We held them at the top of the seventh on Suzzane’s strikeouts and the game was over,” Blakely said.
Medical Lake vs. Colville
The third place Colville Indians (7-3, 10-3) managed to sneak in a single run to overcome the Cards 1-0 in a pitching duel in Medical Lake on Tuesday, April 23.
Abby Bolles and Ashlyn Tamietti recorded the only hits in the game for the Cards.
It was a no-run game for five innings until the Indians managed a single run in the top of the sixth. The Cards weren’t able to respond, with Colville holding tight to their slim lead long enough to take a victory, albeit a narrow one, home with them.
Shores pitched a complete, seven inning, 11 strikeout game, walking four. It was the one earned run that tainted an otherwise impressive effort throwing 110 pitches.
“It was a great defensive game. Colville was able to squeak that one run in at the top of seventh and we couldn’t respond,” Blakely said. “But I’ll take a one-run loss any day.”
Medical Lake at Deer Park
On Thursday, April 25, the Card’s traveled to Deer Park (8-2, 10-7), losing in five innings 15-4 as the Stags were able to hit at-will off of Shores, who again started the game in the circle, throwing 127 pitches and 83 strikes.
But that wasn’t’ enough. Currently second in the NEA, Deer Park took an early jump in runs during the first three innings. By the top of the fourth they had a comfortable 12-4 lead. Four runs were all the Cards could manage to score in the game, while the Stags brought in three more in the bottom of the fifth , breaking 10 runs to close the game on the 10-run rule.
The Stags batters were able to get 13 hits and 10 earned runs, two walks and two home runs off Shores.
Leading the line-up, Allison Duncan had two runs and two hits in three at-bats. Chloe Hanson had two RBIs.
Medical Lake recorded four errors. The Stags had none.
“Defensively we made too many mistakes early in the game, and Deer Park was able to take advantage and roll with it,” Blakely said.
The Cards are 3-6, fifth seed in the NEA and 4-7 overall with three more league and two non-league games to play during the next week.
The regular season ends on Tuesday, May 7, followed by top seeded playoff games the following Saturday.
As of press time the Card girls were scheduled to visit the undefeated Lakeside Hawks on Tuesday, April 30, followed by the 0-8 Newport Grizzlies on the road, Thursday, May 2. Then St. Maries travels from Idaho to Medical Lake on Saturday for some non-league, doubleheader action on Saturday, May 4.
The season’s final game is against fourth place Freeman (5-4, 9-4) when they visit on Tuesday, May 7.
Blakely was cautiously optimistic about the post-season, noting it would depend on how much the team wants to win.
“If everything stays the same, we’ll be going in as a five seed,” he said. “Making it to the top four would be great for us, but we have pretty stiff competition in Lakeside, Colville, Deer Park and Freeman.”
Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].
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