Hadleigh Cranston and Moses Lake's defense shine in sport where offense rules

MOSES LAKE — Slowpitch softball is still in its infancy in the Columbia Basin Big Nine.

And yet, that hasn’t stopped Moses Lake from dominating the league in the program’s second season. Double digit runs from the opposition can feel like a given in a sport where the ball is delivered at a glacial pace. However, Hadleigh Cranston — and the defense behind her — has helped the Chiefs become the stingiest slowpitch team in the league.

“A lot of times you just try to keep it deep because the deeper it is the harder it is to get the full bat on it and the more likely they are to pop it up,” Cranston said. “Usually you keep it deep and then you kind of just have to play with what they like and you just try to remember who’s up and where they like the ball and try not to put it there.”

Cranston, and teammate Ciarrah Knoll, are pretty good at picking their spots from the circle.

Moses Lake has four shutouts this season; the three other members of the Big Nine fielding slowpitch teams — West Valley, Davis and Eisenhower — have one combined.

“It’s obviously a hitter’s game so good teams are just going to have girls that can hit the ball, but you can also have a savvy pitcher that will get ahead in the count and then give pitches that are deep that are still tempting and girls will pop up,” head coach Mike Hofheins said. “Hadleigh’s pretty sneaky with that because she’s played co-ed slowpitch with her dad and she’s been around the slowpitch game.

“She knows when to pitch a girl inside or pitch a girl deep and she’s also pretty smart about knowing which girls in their lineup she really has to be careful with.”

Cranston and Knoll both have slowpitch experience and are familiar with the nuances of delivering the ball. It isn’t quite “painting the black,” but pitchers can work both sides of the plate or have a ball drop deep into the batter’s box to induce a pop up.

“I think when you can live on the outside half of the plate then you get girls that are trying to pull the ball all the time they make mistakes and they pop it up,” Hofheins said. “Missing deep is pretty advantageous because girls will just get under it and pop it up.

“Hadleigh’s pretty good at that, for sure, and Cici’s been pretty tricky. She (Knoll) has a pretty deadly knuckleball that she will throw so it’s also tough to hit.”

More, it doesn’t hurt to have litany of experienced fastpitch players in the field, including reigning player of the year Gina Skinner.

“They’re going to hit it and so you just have to realize that and be able to trust your defense,” Cranston said. “Our defense is really improved. It’s a lot of outfield, but also you just have to be able to not make the little mistakes and as long as you keep it clean then you have a higher advantage than other teams because it’s the little mistakes that really mess you up.”

The defense, which features four outfielders in slowpitch, led to a 14-0 regular season, 2.5 runs allowed per game and the No. 1 seed in next week’s district tournament.

The Chiefs are the favorite to represent the Big Nine in a state tournament at Columbia Playfield in Richland on Oct. 27. Should Moses Lake advance, there will be competition from the Mid Columbia Conference and the slowpitch veterans of the Greater Spokane League and Greater St. Helens league.

“We just hit the ball,” Hofheins said. “We keep hitting the ball like we’re doing and playing clean defense I think we have a shot.”