Going The Distance Colville Team Runs Up Mileage Pursuing National Softball Title

Go ahead, ask the obvious.

Everyone who finds out there’s a team in the Spokane Metro Softball Association that travels no fewer than 60 miles each way for games asks the question.

Why?

Because for those who play modified softball and happen to call Colville, Kettle Falls or Chewelah home, the choice is simple.

Give up the game, or hit the highway most Monday and Wednesday nights from May through August.

The choice was a no-brainer for Hites/Crawford Doors of the Fir “AA” Women’s Modified league in Spokane: Hit Highway 395 and don’t stop until Franklin Park.

“The worst is when it rains,” said Sue Carpenter, H/CD third baseman and a member of the Colville traveling team since 1992. “You play for two innings, and the game is called because it starts raining.”

Calling ahead for a weather report is pointless.

By the time the women leave work, shuffle the kids off and make the trip south, at least 2 hours have elapsed. There’s no telling what the weather conditions will be, and why take the chance of missing out on playing?

“And there’s the times we have doubleheaders, sometimes because of rainouts, and don’t get home until 1 in the morning,” said Carpenter, 31, who travels with Kevin, her husband and team manager.

It wasn’t always like that for H/CD. There was a time when the Colville area supported a modified softball league, a game that is distinguished by the pitcher’s bowlinglike motion.

Problem was, the interest dwindled. Perhaps, theorize some, it was because H/CD annually blew away the competition. The league folded at the end of the 1991 season.

“But there were a lot of us who wanted to keep playing,” Carpenter said.

H/CD remained in business by assembling the best players in the region and moving the show to Spokane.

The team’s run has been four good seasons (56-21 overall) with no signs of slowing as it prepares for the 1995 Women’s Major Modified National Tournament, Aug. 25-27, in Spokane at Franklin Park.

In Spokane’s seven-team “AA” league, Team Spokane, the league’s perennial front-runner, and Papa Tandy, another strong team, have been selected to serve the host-team roles for nationals. The other four teams must play in the metro tournament Aug. 11-13 for two berths.

Despite H/CD’s 3-5 record, it is assured a spot at the 30-plus team national tournament because it is the sole representative from its state region.

Nationwide competition is nothing new to the 13-year-old franchise.

Just last year in Worton, Md., it placed seventh at the nationals for its best finish ever.

But its most talked-about showing occurred in the 1986 Spokane-hosted national tournament, in which the Colville team sent the nation’s No. 1 team - from Staten Island, N.Y. - into the losers bracket on opening night.

Among those who helped pull off the stunner are current team members Laurie Hite, Michelle McKenzie and Camie (Kenner) Ochs. Ochs, 37, managed the team in 1992 before returning to her role as pitcher/third baseman.

“Now, the worst thing is all the traveling,” said Ochs, who became affiliated with Colville softball when her mother played and she served as a bat girl. “But I enjoy playing a lot more now.

“Since we dominated every year, it never prepared us for the national tournament.”

Now, the Colville team believes it’s prepared for anything nationals has to offer.

Maybe this is the year the team goes the distance - in more than just its automobiles.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo