Moses Lake takes optimism into season

Moses Lake softball player Mattie Zayas works on catching drills during practice Thursday at the Moses Lake High School softball field.<br>Brad Redford/ Columbia Basin Herald

by Brad Redford<br>Herald Sports Editor
| March 18, 2005 8:00 PM

Chiefs return three Big Nine all-league players

MOSES LAKE — There might be a few questions to the overall outlook of the Moses Lake girls softball team, but the answers give them an optimistic outlook for the 2005 season.

They are young, short on pitching and have only a handful of veteran experience and that is the down side. On the up side, there are three all-league selections from last year returning and about 10 players who did see action in the 2004 season.

"The veteran players have the experience and they are going to help the young players," head coach Alan Coulter said.

Leading the way in the return this season is Shalayne Hunter and Heather Coulter, who were both second-team all-league selections and Jayme Albrandt, who was an honorable mention last year in the Big Nine.

Hunter led the Chiefs as a freshman in batting average (.359) and had 14 hits and eight runs scored in 39 at bats. Coulter had a 1.35 ERA in 109.1 innings pitched and struck out 137 batters to accumulate a 10-6 record.

Albrandt had a .358 batting average and led the Chiefs in runs (13), RBIs (12), triples (2) and hits (19).

Mattie Zayas, who returns as a catcher for Moses Lake, said the likes of Albrandt, Hunter and Coulter will play a major role in the Chiefs' run for the postseason.

"It is a young team and our biggest weakness is a lack of experience," Zayas said. "The veterans are going to come through and take the young kids along."

Albrandt said pitching will play the biggest role in Moses Lake's run, but the weight of success won't be on the shoulders of Heather Coulter, who carried most of the pitching duties last season.

"It's not just a load on her shoulders," Albrandt said about Heather Coulter. "She has a good defense behind her and if everything is working, we should tear it up."

Alan Coulter said his daughter will carry most of the pitching responsibilities this season with Shelly Mccuistion backing her up. Coulter said as long as Heather stays healthy, Moses Lake plans on making a run through the district tournament and earning a bid to the state.

Besides Heather Coulter and Mccuistion, Moses Lake has a handful of other pitchers, which allows Alan Coulter to provide live pitching early to his offense, something he couldn't do last year.

"We are going to be a better hitting team this year," Alan Coulter said. "We had a slow start last year at the plate, but that was because we didn't have live pitching."

Moses Lake starts the season at Kennewick, who eliminated the Chiefs from the postseason last year. They then open at home against Richland, Eisenhower and Southridge before going back on the road.

"We start out with more competitive teams and it will be tough to way to start the season, but we can bring it," Albrandt said.