University blanks CV in GSL softball title game

There was a definite night-and-day difference between the final two times University and Central Valley met to play slowpitch softball.

Last week the teams met at U-Hi under the lights for the first night game, which CV won 7-3.

Thursday, in the Greater Spokane League title game played in daylight, the home-standing Titans hung a 9-0 pounding on the visiting Bears.

“I think we were just a little too wound up for that last game,” U-Hi coach Jon Schuh said. “It was our new rivalry game, the Fall Ball Brawl, and we got a little too tight and didn’t play well.”

That loss, the only game the Titans have lost the past two seasons, stuck in the back of the players’ minds.

“I think we were embarrassed a little bit,” the coach said. “We wanted to control our own destiny for the playoffs and we ended up putting ourselves in a little bit of a bind. We had a lot of people here for that game and we didn’t play well in front of them and that wasn’t good.”

U-Hi regrouped to sweep North Central to close out the regular-season title for the sixth consecutive time, then stopped Lewis and Clark in the semifinals to face Central Valley for the fifth consecutive time in the championship game.

And, for the fifth time in the six seasons the GSL has played fall slowpitch, the Titans claimed the crown. CV won the title in 2009.

Central Valley loaded the bases with two out in the top of the first inning, but the U-Hi defense denied them a run and the offense never looked back.

The Titans used a four-run first to take the lead, then added three runs in the second on a three-run home run by Karly Schuh, the Titans’ junior shortstop and the coach’s daughter.

The coach, as intense as his teams have been successful, was justifiably proud.

“I think she did that just so I would stop teasing her about having to get into the weight room and add some power,” he said about his daughter’s first home run of the season. “I don’t know but what Karly doesn’t have the toughest job of anyone on this team. She has to put up with me 24/7.”

Karly laughed at that thought, but could not deny its truth.

“I’m just glad I finally got a home run,” she said. “I’ve wanted to hit one all year and I almost got one in our last game (with LC). I hit the top of the wall and it fell back in. This time I hit the top of the wall and it bounced over.”

In all, the Titans pounded out 17 while turning two double plays on defense to thwart CV.

“I think the difference was that we scored runs with two outs,” the senior Schuh said. “That was the difference.”