West Valley, U-Hi finish baseball season feeling good

Top eight finishes in state competition are nothing to sneeze at. Both West Valley’s baseball and University’s softball teams and area track athletes will take them.

The Eagles had their highest postseason baseball finish in years, and while the softball effort is old hat for the Titans, it still felt good.

“We finished 23-6 so I think you have to be happy,” said U-Hi coach Jon Schuh. “You’d love to maybe get a trophy and end the season with a win. But just because we’ve been there nine years in a row doesn’t take away from how hard it is to get there.”

WV coach Don O’Neal echoed those sentiments.

“I was really proud of the guys,” he said. “The kids wanted it real bad and at this level that is a huge factor.”

West Valley baseball

The turning point in West Valley’s season, said O’Neal, came after a loss to Shadle Park during the regular season. The Eagles lost 11-1.

“They lit us up and I told them they didn’t want it,” he said. “That’s the way we felt, really challenged the guys and they responded. The next day the intensity was amazing.”

The Eagles beat the Highlanders and later beat Ferris, split with Central Valley and were on their way.

Kyle Arnold had a big postseason pitching for the team. He had a start and ultimately a save in the regional opener, pitched the team to state with a 7-3 victory over Sunnyside and won the state opener 6-4 over Skyline.

WV’s loss came to unbeaten Selah, the ultimate state third placer.

Arnold also batted .340 for the year, behind power-hitting Tyler Hauschild (.491 in the GSL with 7 home runs total) and sophomore surprise Mitch Phillips (.412). Senior James Edwards batted .339.

“Last summer they changed Tyler’s swing, why I don’t know,” said O’Neal, of the senior catcher’s slow start and fast finish. “He finally got it back.”

After recovering from an arm injury, he was back to his normal self defensively as well.

The Eagles graduate three senior starters and two pitchers, but return eight players, six of them sophomores.

While the future appears bright, nothing will diminish the luster of what this year’s team accomplished.

“We played above our heads,” O’Neal said. “To be honest it’s the first time I’ve felt content with where we ended up. We’ve had good teams that didn’t meet their potential. This one went above and beyond theirs.”

University softball

The Titans season-long inability to score runners was amplified at state where pitching tends to dominate.

But they equaled their third best record during a year when, said Schuh, people may have doubted their ability to even get there.

“We lost seven girls from last year’s (state championship) team and tied for seventh which I think is respectable. We were the last East Side team to be there,” he said. “We struggled a bit at district and regional and were still ablt to put it together and beat two quality teams. And the thing about it is, we played with everybody there.”

Two bloop hits, over first base in a 10-inning 1-0 tiebreaker loss to state runner-up Eastlake and over third base, after leading ultimate fourth-placer Prairie 1-0 through 5 2/3 innings, beat the team.

At one point, junior first-year varsity pitcher Linse Vlahovich had surrendered only that Eastlake run during a span of 23 2/3 tourney innings and she allowed only two earned runs the previous week in two regional triumphs.

“She may have pitched her way into jams, but pitched her way out,” said Schuh. “That’s a big positive for us next year.”

Despite 21 hits, 18 in 3-2 and 2-0 wins, U-Hi scored but six runs in four games at state. During last year’s title run the team got 23 runs from 33 hits.

Season batting leader Molly Owen ended her career with a team high five hits. Fellow seniors Christine Keeton, who tripled and homered, Jessica Keeton and Christine Shollenberger each hit safely in two games.

“We hit the ball extremely well against Skyview and then it was sporadic,” said Schuh. “We hit the ball more last year, which is the reason we won it.”

But upon reflection, he said, a lot of positives came from the tournament and there’s no reason for the Titans not to make a 10th straight trip.

“The girls worked hard in practice and we do things others don’t do on a daily basis,” said Schuh. “I think we should be there.”

Banner season for track

Spokane tracks athletes had a banner season and it showed during last week’s state meets, particularly among girls competitors.

GSL athletes brought home 54 top-eight medallions, several from Valley competitors.

West Valley’s 3A foray bore fruit. Rashad Toussaint defended his triple jump title and upped his school record to 49-2 1/4. He was sixth in the long jump.

Kayla Mainer finished second on misses in her bid to defend her high jump title, but cleared 5-6.

University’s Amie Dahnke ended her distance career with flair, although failing to best the elusive 5:00 1,600 meter mark. She ran fifth in 5:00.34 after finishing second the day before in the 3,200 at 10:59.2.

First-year trackster Jon Jeffreys was third in the javelin and junior Kevin Lemieux improved to 156-10 for fourth in the discus.

Central Valley’s Tasheen Garry ran 38.53 for third in the 300 hurdles, teammates Sam Taylor and Aaron Grothe were fourth and sixth at 6-4 and 6-2 in the high jump and Joe McFarlane was sixth at 14-0 in the pole vault.

Bears sophomore Anna Layman placed third in the 800 with a 2:15.31 time and anchored the seventh-place all freshman-sophomore 1,600 relay team that included Adrienne Duval, Maria Alderman and Lisa Haley.

East Valley’s Andy Roof did not get a legal mark in his bid for a shot put title, but finished third in the discus.

At the State 1A meet, Freeman finished second after building a huge first-day lead.

Kevin Hatch won the pole vault in a personal record 14-9, beating teammate Conor Sayres, added his first high jump state title, with Sayres third, and finished second at 44-9 ½ in the triple jump.

Andrew Wilkerson won the discus title at 153-10 as the trio accounted for the lion’s share of the Scotties’ 60 points.

Bryan Riggs finished sixth in the 400, Ryan Robinson (3,200) and Larry Wheatley (discus) were seventh and Jared Zarelli (javelin) was eighth.

The girls scored 33 points to finish ninth. Jessie DePell‘s second place pole vault and third place triple jump accounted for 14 points.

Melissa Baker finished fourth in the javelin as did Freeman’s 400 relay, Kelsey LaShaw was fifth at 200 meters, Maeve Sayres (800) and Tyann McFall (pole vault) were seventh and Amber Raines was eighth at 3,200 meters.

Valley Christian’s girls and boys placed seventh and ninth in the State B meet with 25 points each. Troy Fridley lost the 3,200 title by a mere .05 second, was second at 1,600 meters as well and helped the 1,600 relay team to fourth place for 20 of those points. The 400 relay, in sixth and Andrew McNamara‘s eighth-place long jump accounted for the rest.

Amy Fox and Erica Hattamer went three-four in the open 400 and were part of Valley Christian’s third place 1,600 relay, fourth-place 400 relay and sixth place 800 relay teams.