Wildcat summer softball overwhelms competition

Published 10:32 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

The Mount Si Wildcats’ softball program opened its second season of play in the Seattle Summer Fastpitch League on a strong note last Wednesday night in Seattle.

In the opening game of a doubleheader against West Seattle, the Valley’s Wildcats overcame a slow start and made easy work of the Metro League’s ‘Cats. Traci Barclay, slated to be Mount Si’s pitcher in 2007, pitched a complete game and struck out seven as Mount Si won 6-2 in six innings. The game was called early due to a 90-minute time limit on the contest.

After Barclay gave up a run in the top of the first inning, the Mount Si bats went to work in the bottom of the frame against the West Seattle pitcher. Singles by Rachel Nyberg, Katie Brett and Melissa Webster keyed a quick three-run explosion by the Mount Si offense. From that point, the Wildcats never looked back, scoring three more runs over the next two innings to put the game away.

In the nightcap between the Wildcats and former Seamount League rival Evergreen, once again it was all Mount Si. Jessica Bladow pitched six strong innings and struck out 12 Wolverines, and April Saffell hit a double and picked up three RBIs as Mount Si won 8-1. Brett went 2-2 and also added three RBIs.

The Wildcats’ summer league coach Todd Shaw said he sees the goal of this league for Mount Si being skill development. “We’re going to work on fundamentals. We’re going to work on developing skills as softball players. We’re going to get the younger kids used to high-school ball, [and] get ready for next year,” Shaw said.

The Wildcats are scheduled to play games in this league mainly on Wednesday nights through early July.