Cardinals remain playoff longshot

MEDICAL LAKE - When is a loss a good thing?

When it teaches lessons, perhaps?

That might be the way Medical Lake baseball coach Austin Sharp looks at last week's 16-10 non-league loss during the inaugural Flashback Friday at Colfax. Earlier in the week the Cardinals earned an 11-1 Northeast A League win over Newport.

The game between the 2B Bulldogs and 1A Cardinals first filled a void in the Colfax schedule and put a big crowd in the stands to watch teams compete in 1990s-era uniforms.

It may be the start of a tradition depending on schedules in 2025.

But back to details in a game where both teams made their impressions in opposite ends of the game. For Medical Lake that was early when behind sophomore pitcher AJ Michaud and the hitting of freshman Zack Boyd, the Cardinals led 7-2 after before crumbling.

"That was a bad Friday night finish," Sharp said of the game that saw Colfax take advantage of Michaud exiting due a pitch count in the fourth inning. The Bulldogs scored nine runs in the bottom sixth to erase a 10-7 lead the Cards crafted with a 3-run top of the inning.

"Obviously that that sixth inning, we'd like to have back," Sharp said. "We did pretty much anything we wanted to for the first couple of innings there."

Boyd was part of the early success going 2-for-3 with a triple. Andrew Roberts had three hits, including a double while Michaud and Taylor Oliver each had a pair of hits.

"It was a good environment for our kids to experience because you don't get people screaming and yelling every inning for seven innings," Sharp said.

More important on the week was the victory over Newport that snapped a three-game NEA losing streak and kept the Cards in the thick of the post-season hunt.

The game was tight until Medical Lake blew things open scoring seven runs in their half of the fifth in the Holliday Field game. That invoked the 10-run rule and ended the game.

"I think every hit was a single but we you know we stole five or six bases," Sharp said. Roberts had three of the eight ML hits and two RBI while Ian Thompson added two more.

Medical Lake (5-4 NEA, 9-8 overall) now enters the final portion of the regular season with games against Deer Park (5-4, 11-3) on April 23, Riverside (1-8. 3-8) April 27 and at Newport (1-8. 5-8) April 30.

"I'd love to be the three seed, but I think we've got to win out," Sharp said, adding "I think that's doable, but Deer Park will be a tough one on Tuesday."