Knights Need Hitting If Playoffs A Reality
In East Valley baseball coach Kurt Krauth’s mind, it will take eight wins to make the Greater Spokane League district playoffs.
He’d like to have a couple of one-run losses back.
“We’ve not been blown out yet,” he said. “Our worst loss is by two runs.”
The Knights are 6-7 heading into the final three games of the season.
Last week they were beaten 4-3 by Central Valley, after rallying from a 3-0 deficit. It was the team’s third one-run loss of the league season, including 5-4 to second-place Ferris and 2-1 to leader North Central.
“We haven’t gotten any clutch hits,” said Krauth. “We’re not getting a lot of people on base, either.”
But the pitching, until Tuesday, had been fine by Adam Stultz and Chad Mathison. The Knights have allowed four or fewer runs in 10 of 13 games.
“Both have thrown well,” said Krauth. “And Chris Moore has given us some good innings. We just haven’t scored any runs.”
Shae Lanphere, Dave Marlow and the two starting pitchers have been EV’s most consistent hitters. Marlow’s clutch two-out, two-run double beat Lewis and Clark in yet another one-run game, 4-3.
EV entered the week as part of a three-way tie for fifth place with Mead and Rogers before losing 17-12 Tuesday to Ferris. Top six teams reach district.
The Knights are at Gonzaga Prep today, host the Panthers tomorrow and conclude at home against fourth-place Shadle Park on Monday.
If Krauth is right and eight wins get you in, Central Valley is already there. Despite a 2-1 loss to Lewis and Clark last Friday, the Bears are 9-4 and in third place.
They were scheduled to play North Central on Wednesday, host Mt. Spokane Friday and are at Rogers Monday in their final three games.
Leadoff hitter Tyson Fitterer remained hot with a pair of two-hit games last week and now shares the team lead.
Catcher Jeremy Nichols had the clutch two-out seventh-inning hit that beat the Knights.
It comes to this in softball
Post-season beckons for four Valley softball teams. This week will determine their playoff status.
University’s girls are playing for a fifth straight GSL title with four games remaining.
Pivotal is Friday’s game at Shadle Park, a first-place showdown.
If the Titans win they will have, barring upset, a formidable two-game lead with two remaining. Even a tie for the title would mean a bye into regionals.
Eight players now have double-digit hits for the Titans, led by Vanessa Shelton’s 24. Jill Oglesbee has 16, Megan Owen and Jenny Shollenberger 15 each.
Fourth-place Central Valley is one of four teams seeking three district playoff berths. The Bears have two games remaining.
Lewis and Clark transfer Carina Ebat leads the team hitting with 14. Tara Heuett has 10.
Already assured second place, West Valley hosts Frontier leader Colville for two games Saturday that will gauge playoff readiness for district and regional tournaments.
Freeman swept Colfax last weekend to complete a sweep of Northeast A League foes and are either regional or state bound. The Scotties are 15-0 overall.
Third Eagle tops 5 feet
By winning at the Border League track meet in Cheney last Friday, West Valley’s Tina Ferguson became the third Eagle girl to better 5-feet in the high jump.
Ferguson cleared 5-1 for the win and teammate Jill Vermeers duplicated her 5-foot effort to place third.
Sara Biesen has led the team with a 5-2 best.
During the Cougar Invitational in Pullman, EV’s Andrew Burgess and Jason Paul finished first and third in the high jump and Blake Horgan won the shot put for East Valley.
WV pole vaulters Ben Clifford and Luke Brosvik were third and fourth in the pole vault, Valley Christian’s Jared Evans and Jayvan Eberle were second and third, and third and fourth in two hurdles races.
WV’s Jenny Gregorak was second in the pole vault at 10-feet and Shannon Groh finished third in the discus at 135-3 and took sixth in the javelin.
Tye Scott, the only CV athlete to go south on prom day, was third in the javelin, upping his area-best to 188-10, and he came back to place fourth in the discus at 146-7.
Tie-breaker favors Knights
East Valley’s boys track team got the benefit of a tie-breaker and meet with Central Valley, Ferris and Rogers in the fifth-place quad meet today at CV.
The Knights, one of three teams with six losses, earned a paper victory over North Central based upon comparison times and distances. And because of its regular season win over Lewis and Clark, EV moved ahead of the Tigers even though LC had two wins to EV’s one.
“This might get the kids motivated to achieve top 16 times,” said coach Dave McCarty, and qualify for next week’s district meet.
In particular he’s hoping Jesse Nicholson in the triple jump and Kaipo Keuhu in the hurdles can advance.
The other advantage of the meet, he said, is that it will be the first of three on CV’s track, including districts.
University’s boys are at Shadle Park, competing with the Highlanders, Mt. Spokane and Mead for the top four places.
Legion A tryouts this weekend
Central Valley’s American Legion A baseball tryouts will be this saturday and Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m. on the CV junior varsity field.
Legion A baseball is for athletes age 16 and younger.
The Cannons, a CV, East Valley and West Valley combined Senior Legion team will conduct its tryouts May 20-21 at 6 p.m. at Gonzaga University.