'Too many injuries,' says coach

By Dean Wong

The Ballard Beaver's started their game against Juanita last Wednesday, knowing they needed at least two wins in their last four games to make the KingCo playoffs.

By the fifth inning, poor defense and a lack of hitting doomed the Beavers in a 17-0 loss to the Rebels. The Beavers have battled their way to a 3-13 league and overall record during a long losing season.

Head coach Al Lowe said his team has been battling health issues and grade point averages that fell short of the 2.0 necessary to participate in sports.

"Too many injuries," is how Lowe summed up his team's performance to date.

Both starting pitchers have been hurt, including the team's best thrower, veteran Tara French.

Going into last Wednesdays game against Juanita, Ballard not only had to win two of their remaining four games to make the playoffs, Roosevelt had to keep losing games for the Beavers to make the postseason.

They have played well enough this year to defeat Garfield twice 20-3 and 16-1 and Franklin 17-0.

Their losses have come against: Woodinville 10-0 and 0-6; Juanita 3-2; Lake Washington 11-0; Redmond 9-0; Eastlake 12-0 and 7-2; Roosevelt 18-8; Bothell 1-0; Inglemoor 3-1 and 2-0.

As of last week, Ballard was in ninth place in King Co.

In a statement of eastside schools dominating softball this season, all four Seattle schools were in the bottom four of the league with Roosevelt, Ballard, Franklin and Garfield respectively.

"We are usually in the middle of the pack," said Lowe, regarding recent seasons when his Beavers qualifed for the first round of the league playoffs.

Woodinville lead the league with a 13-1 record and Eastlake was second at 13-2. Lake Washington and Juanita were 12-3 and 12-4.