Slowpitch championship: Mt. Spokane downs rival Mead to win second softball title of the year
Two 2021 softball seasons, two titles.
Mt. Spokane swept the softball seasons on Wednesday, winning the Greater Spokane League slowpitch championship 9-2 over host Mead.
The Wildcats (9-4) won the fastpitch title on May 13 after senior Morgan Flesland tossed a no-hitter against University.
Then, just two weeks later, the Wildcats won their opening slowpitch game against East Valley.
That 14-day turnaround was a tough adjustment for Mt. Spokane.
“Even from last week to this week, we’re still making improvements and trying to get better, and that is what makes coaching so fun, when the players work hard to get better and see the results in the field, and they did a really fantastic job of doing that,” Mt. Spokane coach Carl Adams said.
To begin the season, Mt. Spokane lost two of three games. The final nine games saw the Wildcats win eight, including the title game.
“Mead or anybody, we just want to play well, and we knew we could play better than we played and we did that. So that’s the icing on the cake, is to see your team improve,” Adams said.
Mt. Spokane blew the game open in the third, scoring seven runs on six hits, led by Flesland, who knocked in the first run with a single to left.
Diana Mongkeya, Brynna Singer, Willow Almquist, Lyndsey Heinz and Avery Erickson all contributed RBIs to the outburst in the third.
The Wildcats added two more runs in the fourth to close the book on their scoring.
The Panthers (10-4) struggled to get the bats warmed up. They scored the first run in the second on a single by Riley Carr and another in the fifth on an Ellie Sletten single, but that was the extent of their scoring.
Mead improved from a 6-7 record during the fastpitch season to have the best record in the GSL during the slowpitch season.
“I am beyond proud of this team,” Mead head coach Tiffany Casedy said. “We’ve had quite a year of just working hard and it just paid off. To get here, to get to this game, against Mt. Spokane – they are a great program. They’re a great team. And we knew that coming into it. So we’re just so proud of ourselves. The girls are proud of themselves for getting here and for being here.”
Mt. Spokane senior pitcher Lyndsey Heinz held the Panthers to eight hits – a massive improvement to her previous performance against Mead when she allowed 11 runs.
“At first, I was a little nervous just because of how we did last time,” Heinz said. “But my team really helped calm me down. And I felt nervous as well as really confident going out and just knew that we all had to just work together as a team and get it done.
“GSL champion in both slowpitch and fastpitch has really been amazing. I just could not have asked for a better team this year. Perfect day.”
Central Valley 10, Ferris 9: Maddie Saty tripled with four RBIs and the Bears (8-5) defeated the visiting Saxons (9-4) in the third-place game. Emily Schulhauser went 3 for 4, scored twice, tripled and doubled for CV. Katelyn Strauss homered with three RBIs for Ferris.
University 12, Cheney 2: Natalie Singer went 3 for 3, scored once and drove in two, and the Titans (7-5) defeated the visiting Blackhawks (7-6) in the GSL fifth-place game . Katie Travis went 2 for 2 and doubled for U-Hi.
Rogers 7, East Valley 0: Destiny Sandbergen and Jaelyn Proctor hit home runs and the visiting Pirates (7-6) beat the Knights (6-7) in the GSL seventh-place game at University HS. Rachel Throckmorton went 2 for 2 for EV.