Huskies sweep Shadle Park

OTHELLO – The Huskies continued their strong start to the season with a sweep over Shadle Park on Tuesday, winning 10-0 and 15-3

Both games of the doubleheader ended in five innings.

“We weren’t sure what to expect from Shadle,” Head Coach Rudy Ochoa said. “The first pitcher, she’s for real. We hit her pretty good and we’re happy with that. It feels good to start off like we have, beating Walla Walla and then Shadle Park.”

Shadle Park was the next team in line of a challenging non-league slate for Othello this season, who hopes to see some talented pitching in order to prepare for another postseason run. Othello defeated Walla Walla, the 3A state runner-up from last season.

“Seeing competition like this is going to help us at state,” sophomore Emi Pruneda said.

The 4-0 start against talented teams serves as a confidence booster, senior Camryn McDonald said.

“Facing good competition early in the season has really brought our confidence up,” McDonald said. “Hopefully that continues through the rest of the season.”

The Huskies and Highlanders were scoreless in the first two innings of Tuesday’s doubleheader, but the Othelo bats started to come alive once the third inning hit. Othello scored one run in the third inning off an RBI single by junior Miccaela Valdez.

The bats remained hot in the fourth inning, where the Huskies rallied off five runs with RBI singles by junior Amarie Guzman and Pruneda, then a three RBI double by Valdez.

“Once they see the pitcher for a couple of innings then they pretty much see what it is,” Ochoa said. “They’re good hitters. It was about the third time around when we really started to hit well.”

Senior Makiah Galindo and McDonald added RBIs in the bottom of the fourth inning that gave the Huskies a 9-0 lead, and the first game ended on an RBI by Pruneda.

“The first game, everything was really outside,” Pruneda said. “(That pitch) wasn’t too outside, so I decided ‘I’m going to swing.’ Drove it to right field.”

Othello picked up where it left off in the top of the first inning of the second game, with Pruneda and junior Naraiah Benavidez-Guzman both batting in runs in the first inning. The Huskies became on fire at the plate in the second inning, recording eight hits, 13 runs and nearly circling through the batting order twice. Two of those eight hits were triples by Valdez and junior Persayis Garcia, and one was a home run by McDonald.

“I was being really patient waiting for a ball that was in the strike zone,” McDonald said. “I saw it coming, it was kind of high, but I decided it was close enough for me to swing at. Swung as hard as I could.”

Ochoa credited the Huskie batter’s patience as to why the bats continued to stay hot in the second inning.

“It was off-speed, so we were having a hard time at first,” Ochoa said. “Once they slowed down, wait for the pitch – they just caught on to it. It gets (contagious), a domino effect.”

The Huskies adapted quickly to the off-speed pitches, McDonald said.

“Us being able to make quick adjustments is really beneficial to the winning percentage we hope to have,” McDonald said. “Quick adjustments equals wins.”

Othello returns to the field on Monday at home against Selah. The first game of the doubleheader begins at 3 p.m.

Box Scores

Game One

Shadle Park 0-0-0-0-0: 0

Othello 0-0-1-5-4: 10

Game Two

Shadle Park 0-1-0-3: 4

Othello 2-13-0-0: 5