The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

The Lady Raiders travelled to Cashmere last Saturday for a season opening doubleheader against the Bulldogs. LR travelled without one of their key players who could not make the trip. Because of this, the coaches had to shuffle people around to fill the hole which meant some girls had to play in positions they had never played before.

LR’s youth and inexperience showed as the Bulldogs held the Lady Raiders scoreless in the first game of the doubleheader. In the second game the Lady Raiders did score two runs.

The Bulldogs took advantage of Lady Raider errors to roll to a 18-2 victory. Head Coach Jamie Lezard spoke about those errors,

“We had some costly errors both offensively and defensively,” Head Coach Jamie Lezard said. He also said the team did not play up to their abilities.

“We still need more team communication, team effort and team attitude,” he said. “If we play all the fundamentals of the game, we will be fine.”

Bright spots for the Lady Raiders came from the plate performance of Ashlee Semmens, who leads the team with a .750 batting average. And eighth-grader Tristan Adolph and freshman Savannah Kentner both batted .500 on Saturday. Lezard wants to see this production carry over into the later games.

Both games were an improvement for the Lady Raiders, compared to last season’s opener against Okanogan when LR fell by the score of 30-4 in a single game.

The Lady Raiders looked to last night’s game at Tonasket to rebound and give them a positive before the upcoming long break. Last night’s game was the last for the Lady Raiders until April 6, when the Lady Raiders take on the Davenport Gorillas at Davenport starting at noon.

To get to the softball field at Davenport, take a right of highway 2 at 1st Street (at the bowling lanes at the edge of town) and go straight for five blocks; the softball field will be on your left.