Football pads slapping against each other and the thumping kick of soccer balls aimed at nets will be joined by new sounds this fall at Cheney High School — the sounds of balls hitting bats.
Slow pitch softball makes its debut the second week of September when Cheney hosts a jamboree on Saturday, Sept. 7, followed by the first ever slow pitch game on Tuesday, Sept. 10 when the Lady Blackhawks travel to Mead.
Cheney will be coached by long-time softball veteran and Lady Blackhawks fastpitch head coach Gary Blake, who brought the idea to the school district earlier this year as on option for adding another girls sport under Title IX. Spokane School District 81 first fielded slow pitch teams in fall 2002, and since then schools in the Central Valley and Mead districts have followed suit to bring the sport to the full Greater Spokane League.
Two years ago, East Valley — a member of the 2A Great Northern League along with Cheney — began playing slow pitch in the GSL. Blake said their participation has had an impact on the Knights fastpitch program, showing up in improved fielding and defense. With the Cheney School District looking for another girls sport, Blake made his pitch this past winter to the school board.
“Same uniforms, same equipment and same field as fastpitch,” he said. “There weren’t a lot of additional costs, except transportation. It was pretty economical.”
There are however obvious differences. Unlike fastpitch, there is no bunting or stealing in slow pitch. The pitch is made underhand, and must have an arc between 6 and 12 feet if it’s to pass over the plate as a strike. A foul on a third strike is an automatic out.
“Any at bat would last a maximum of six pitches, which makes it a faster game,” Blake said.
Additionally, there is one more fielder, a fourth outfielder that can be played at normal depth or closer to the infield.
Blake said there are only 40 slow pitch high school programs in Washington, a sport sanctioned by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association or WIAA. Besides the 12 in the GSL, there are an additional 10 teams between the Big Nine and Columbia conferences in the Tri-Cities/Yakima area, with other 18 teams playing west of the Cascade Mountains. Most of those are in southwest Washington.
State championships will take place Nov. 1-2 in Yakima, with Cheney’s first home game coming Tuesday, Sept. 17 against Central Valley. The Lady Blackhawks have seven home games in an 18-game schedule, with games taking place Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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