Kaitlyn Scoble and Shadle Park’s softball team at the top of their league

Kaitlyn Scoble starts the engine for the Shadle Park fastpitch softball team.

That’s what lead-off hitters are supposed to do.

Scoble, a first-team All-Greater Spokane League outfielder a year ago and one of the leading hitters in the league again this year, has her Shadle Park Highlanders heading into the playoffs with a 16-3 record in the regular season, 15-3 in league.

After closing out the regular season with a 4-0 shutout of Mead, the Highlanders are the No. 1 Class 3A seed from the GSL going into the regional tournament. Shadle Park finished a game behind regular-season champion University and split its two-game series with the Titans.

“The league has always been pretty competitive,” Scoble said. “When you play teams like University and Central Valley, you know you’re going to face good pitching. I look forward to those games because you go in knowing you’re going to have to work for it.

“Playing teams like that forces you to get better. I’ve seen myself grow as a player in those games.”

It’s been a journey for the Highlanders this season, Scoble said.

Shadle has the league’s top pitcher in four-year starter Jaya Allen. But having a dominant pitcher can be a double-edged sword for a team. It can grow to lean too heavily on the pitcher and grow lax on defense – expecting three strikeouts an inning.

“There definitely have been times when we’ve relied on Jaya too much,” Scoble explained. “I think we’ve learned from it. We’ve learned that we have to play solid defense behind her. We had some games where we just didn’t have anything.

“I like how our team is right now. There are a few things we need to work on, but there always are. We’ve progressed. In a good way. Our team chemistry is a lot better and we’re making plays defensively when we need to make them much more often.”

At its highest levels, fastpitch softball tends to be a game dominated by pitchers. Once you get to the state tournament, virtually every team has a college-bound pitcher – or at the very least a pitcher being heavily recruited by a number of college softball programs.

But at that high level, it’s still all about which team can score. Even in the greatest pitching duel, someone has to get a run across the plate.

Good hitters live for games like that, and Scoble said she relishes the chance to show what she can do on that grand stage.

It’s especially critical for a lead-off hitter.

“My job as a lead-off hitter is to go up (to the plate) and make them pitch to me,” she explained. “I want to get on base and make things happen, but I also want my teammates to get a chance to see what she’s going to throw so they can have a better idea of what to expect. That’s the job.”

The Greater Spokane League can get a little insular. Players grow up facing each other in club games even before they head off to represent their school team. That familiarity can sometimes work against players – they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses all too well.

Scoble says she is excited about facing pitchers she doesn’t have a book on.

“That’s exciting to me,” she allowed. “I keep track of how someone pitches to me. It’s fun when I can throw all that out and face someone fresh.”

It boils her job down, she said.

“Personally, it gets my mind more focused on what I need to do. It helps me think more about what I’m going to do when I go up there. I can slap the ball or I can hit away. I can drag bunt. I have all those tools going in and I can utilize those options and push myself to do more at the plate.

“It’s all about reading the defense. It gets me more aggressive. It gets me excited. I’m always a little nervous. What are they going to bring? Are they going to rely more on speed? Or movement? That gets me motivated and gets me stronger with my strike zone.”

Dealing with speed, she said, is what she handles best. If a pitcher has great movement on the ball, well, that’s tough for any hitter to deal with.

“Especially during big games like that, I remember something my dad always tells me,” Scoble said. “He’s always telling me, ‘You just have to shake it off.’ My teammates do a great job of getting me out of that funk. There’s a little moment where I may get ticked off at myself when a pitcher gets me out. But they help me move on.”