CV shocks U-Hi with rout for GSL crown
As Central Valley’s Greater Spokane League slowpitch softball champions were in the middle of their post-game confab, the football team, practicing nearby, stormed the balustrade and offered a raucous shout out.
The Bears (21-1) had not only dethroned perennial champion University (20-2), but also did so with a shocking 15-2 five-inning thrashing Wednesday.
Pitcher Makenna Wasteney was not only stingy on the mound, but also joined an offensive rampage spearheaded by shortstop Shayla Vegas.
The Bears banged out 16 hits in four innings of at bats, including six during a seven-run second inning. Vegas hit two home runs and a double while driving in six runs.
Wasteney had three doubles, Kelsey Gumm hit a two-run homer and table setter Aubrey West, who bats in front of Vegas, had three hits and scored three times.
“It’s a team that hits a lot of home runs and that’s what they did to us,” Titans coach Jon Schuh said. “As a team we had four or five home runs (during the year). He’s (CV coach Joe Stanton) probably got four girls who had at least four home runs.”
Wasteney was one of them for a team that often hit four dingers in a single game.
“Is this the best team I’ve ever had?” Stanton told his girls afterward. “Hell, yes.”
West singled with an out in the first inning and Vegas slugged her first homer over the dead-left-field fence. The next inning, in which CV batted around, including five successive hits, essentially put the game out of reach. Wasteney doubled in a couple of runs and Gumm followed with her two-run blow.
Vegas’ three-run homer during the four-run third inning put the exclamation mark on the smackdown.
“This is my first time playing slowpitch,” said Vegas, who moved here from Texas last year. “There was a lot of adjustment to make, but I’m a softball player and that’s just what you have to do.”
Stanton said she hit 10 home runs and had 41 RBIs during the regular season.
“Anytime we’ve won one against them, which hasn’t been very often against these guys, it’s a close game,” Stanton said. “To win this big was a surprise to me. When we had the big inning, that just (deflates) a team.”
Wasteney allowed but two third inning runs, beating U-Hi for the second time this year. They tied for their first regular season GSL championship and won their second district title in nine years. U-Hi had won the rest.
“Honestly, it’s crazy to win the district championship and end up beating this team by 13 runs in the fifth inning,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a better way to end my year.”
It gave CV’s football team something to shout about.