Medical Lake baseball debuts under Sharp

There's a new boss for Medical Lake baseball, but the direction of the program does not seem to be changing with head coach Austin Sharp in charge.

The 29-year-old native of Woodland, Calif. is single and has been with the program since 2012. He got a jump-start guiding Medical Lake's AA American Legion program last summer. He replaced Kerry Kelly who stepped away following the 2017 season after seven years as head coach.

Sharp, who graduated from Greenville High School in California, is employed full time at MLHS in a school security and student support role.

A turnout of 28 for the program - average numbers Sharp said - will be pretty much split between varsity and junior varsity. They consist of five seniors and eight juniors.

"I have a ton of juniors so I still have a couple down on JV (junior varsity)," Sharp said.

And of those numbers, only three return from a team that finished 8-8, fourth place in the Northeast A League where the Cardinals were 8-6.

The returnees are seniors, centerfielder Trevor Hurt-Moran and Ben Evans at catcher and pitcher, plus junior Sam Gollehon at shortstop,

"You come in here with a plan, but like coach Kelly says, you make one change and have to adjust the entire infield and outfield just to bring that guy in," Sharp said.

Roster spots like catcher are pretty easy, he explained. "If Ben (Evans) is pitching, Sam Griffey is catching," Sharp said. "Ben's going to catch all the other innings for us for the most part."

Third base has several different candidates vying for the so-called, "hot corner," with juniors Nick Thompson, Dylan Yarnell or Griffey likely to see time there.

At second base, Weston Thomas and Gavin O'Brien share time. O'Brien, however, will see duty in left field. First base belongs to junior Seth Mayer.

Newcomer Dylan Yarnell has gotten Sharp's attention. "Missing a year of baseball has put him behind," Sharp said, who expects the junior to play a lot of outfield.

Chandler Chitwood and Mike Veltri are seniors with juniors Austin Jasmer and Ben Soliday all expected to fill a role of some kind, specifically in the outfield.

With familiarity of most everyone's name mastered a while ago, the challenge for Sharp so far has been get his players on a dry field. At one point, the team only had one practice with the entire field in use.

"My first day as JV coach we were outside day-one," Sharp said. Ever since it has not been like that and there is no substituting hardwood for real grass. In 2017 the team only played two games before spring break, but this year there have been six, so there's some improvement.

"The kids are doing a good job drill-wise, now they just have to start applying it, and I think they're doing that," Sharp said.

Sharp said that initially he thought pitching was going to be a rough spot, but that is no longer the case with the likes of Thomas and Evans. "We've got guys that can throw strikes and not walk a bunch of batters," Sharp said.

Defensively, they have to make the routine plays and that will allow ML to compete with most teams in the league, Sharp said. "I think we'll end up being OK."

A handful of the roster spots are composed of varsity wrestlers who had an extended season with trips to state. That's why he did not have games scheduled over spring break and gave those athletes some deserved time off.

Out of the pause, the Cardinals face three NEA games, Riverside April 10 and back-to-back contests with the league big dogs, at Freeman April 13 at 4:30 p.m. and home vs. the Scotties at noon Saturday.

"Freeman's always a tough one," Sharp said. "Them and Chewelah" are the clubs Sharp said are the top two teams his guys will have to challenge.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.

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