Softball: Mt Spokane switches from power pitching to power hitting in defense of Greater Spokane League title

Mt. Spokane won the Greater Spokane League regular season last year during the COVID-shortened season, going undefeated in 11 games. The Wildcats added two more wins during the abbreviated postseason to be crowned “East Region” champion.

This year’s edition of the Wildcats has a completely different feel to it, but it should continue to wreak havoc on the rest of the league.

Power pitcher Morgan Flesland and her wicked left arm are now in the Pac-12 at Oregon State, but Mt. Spokane has many powerful bats left to pick up the slack.

“It’s definitely adjustment when we lose a senior like Morgan. It’s tough to see her go,” Mt. Spokane coach Carl Adams said on Monday, after the Wildcats (3-3, 3-1) hit six home runs in a 23-2 win over Gonzaga Prep.

“Last year, obviously, we had Morgan and she was that big pitcher,” junior outfielder Willow Almquist said. “And we didn’t even get very many balls in the field.

“I think the whole year I got two or three balls. And already I’ve beat that number, obviously. So it’s a big adjustment.”

It wasn’t just Flesland leaving – though she leaves big enough shoes to fill.

“I think we graduated, I don’t know, five or six really good seniors last year, so it’s certainly a different group,” Adams said. “But that’s what makes every year fun. Start over, learn to play together, fill roles and fill spots and kind of see how it all works out.”

The lone senior on this year’s squad is shortstop Peyton Dressler, who’s headed to Columbia Basin next year. She was first-team all-league at catcher last season.

“We only have one (senior), but she’s a really good one,” Adams said. “She kind of sets the example for the for the underclassmen, a lot of our juniors, on what does it mean to lead. They look at her and they learn from her and she’s by all means not our only leader, but she sets a great example for everyone else.”

“We’re just trying to mesh together because it’s still a pretty new team,” Dressler said. “We’re just trying to get as close as we can and just see how well we can do on the field. Of course we want to go to state and be GSL champs, but right now I think we’re just taking it one step at a time.”

Dressler understands her role as the team leader.

“I feel like there’s definitely a little bit more pressure, but I love the girls so it just comes easy with them.”

“There’s only so much that one person can do, obviously, and she is very much a leader,” Almquist said. “But we all take different roles on the team, especially the juniors. We have so many juniors, so it’s nice that we we’re able to work together as juniors to make up for the missing seniors.”

Adams has six juniors, many of with varsity experience. One of the keys to their season’s success is the power hitting of first baseman Jessica Waters.

Waters hit two homers against G-Prep on Monday and has eight in six games . She hit a homer during the slowpitch tournament in Yakima in the fall that cleared the 300-foot sign by a good 20 feet.

“Jessica comes in with a lot of recognition,” Adams said. “But it’s not just her who can take good at-bats for us. We’re starting to see our other hitters develop and take good at bats.”

Waters doesn’t have a college picked out yet, but she is generating a lot of interest. She knows it’s something she’ll have to pay more attention to in the near future.

“Obviously, I can grow and be a better teammate and be more of a leader and I can grow on all the mental side of the sport.

“I don’t think I necessarily struggle that much on the physical side, but I definitely struggle on the mental side, so I can I can work on that for sure.

Quiet by nature, Waters is growing into more of a leadership role. She played a prank on some of the younger players, convincing them to dress up for a road game when the rest of the team was casual.

But when one of those players, sophomore Cassie Jay, homered, the tables turned on Waters.

“I made a bet with Cassie that if she hit a home run or hit the fence directly that I would wear my uniform to school,” Waters said. “So on Wednesday, I will be wearing my uniform to school.”

Waters shows there are different ways to be a leader.

“I feel like there’s different roles on every team and I think (Dressler) can’t take all the roles,” she said. “All of us contribute a lot and I think all of us take the responsibility of helping to lead and being leaders out there.”

The Wildcats started slowly this season, with losses in two nonleague games, but got on a roll once league play started, winning three of four .

“We played two really good nonleague teams in Moses Lake and Shadle Park,” Adams said. “We got beaten both games, but the goal was to see the best competition we can see and learn to compete hard against really good teams, and we’re still learning to do that. But I think we’re headed the right direction.”

Adams said the most valuable resource this season is time.

“We’re still so early in the season that there’s a lot to work on, but we haven’t even had a real season regular season since 2018. 2019 was cut short by snow, obviously 2020 and ’21 short with COVID. So we got some time to work on some more things we haven’t had in three years.

“We’re just really glad back to a full 20-game schedule.”

“I’m so grateful to have a full season ahead of us,” Dressler said. “It was just so heartbreaking with 2020 and then even with 2021 not even having a full season. So I’m just very glad for my senior year that we can.”