Quincy drops baseball season opener 10-0 to Cheney

QUINCY — Quincy senior Cody Kehl looked in midseason form with a double and a triple to go along with a quality start on the mound, but the young Jacks (0-1) never did string more than one or two hits together in Friday’s 10-0 loss in the season opener to Cheney.

Kehl, who is committed to play for Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, drove the ball up the right-center power alley in his first at-bat in the first inning, stole third, but was stranded. The Jack senior split the gap in left-center in the sixth, this time stretching it into a triple.

“The pitching was good, but I felt real comfortable at the plate. When I got a fastball down the middle I just looked to drive,” said Kehl, who plays summer ball for the Seattle Select in North Seattle. “We’re young. I think we take that positive energy we had the whole game, the double play and the throw-out at the plate, and move forward. We had some quality at-bats that showed a maturity in some of our young players.”

Daniel Chavez singled twice for the Jacks, who had just five hits on the day.

“We’re going to have some growing pains, but we have a lot of good, young kids,” second-year coach Andy Harris said. “They’re all learning as we go. For a lot of the kids, this is their first varsity experience. We have to go through adversity to get better. Sometimes taking a beating helps with the motivation.”

Cheney took a 2-0 lead in the first inning and steadily expanded it, capping the game with a two-run home run by lead-off hitter Andrew Witt in the top of the sixth. The defensive play of the game came in the fifth inning when Jacks catcher Nathan Delgado tagged Cheney runner Kevin Holt out at the plate trying to score from third on a double steal.

“We have a lot of talent, it’s just young talent,” Harris said. “We’ll take the good with the bad. We were without our No. 1 pitcher today, Doug Tobin, who was on a family trip. We’ll be ready next time.”

Quincy hosts Ellensburg in a doubleheader on Saturday.