Errors haunt Medical Lake in Wood Bat play

Co-head coach Austin Sharp is not offering excuses for his team attempting to multi-task this past weekend as a reason for Medical Lake's 0-5 finish in the American Legion Wood Bat Classic tournament.

But behind-the-scenes duties hosting three other teams might just take a toll on his team he hinted.

"It's only three days, but when you're taking care of the field for 10 games, I was real proud of them the way they did their job," Sharp said.

Medical Lake lost 10-1 bright and early June 30 to the 16U Spokane Crew to open play. They came back to end the day with a 7-3 loss to the Eagle Vipers.

Day two began with an 11-7 loss to the Moses Lake Walleyes and a wild 12-11 loss to the Columbia Gorge River Bandits. ML ended as a No. 5 finisher and played West Valley of Spokane, losing 13-5 at East Valley.

Against the 16U Crew, coached by former Medical Lake standout Adam Paulson, Weston Thomas got the start, went the distance in a five-inning contest shortened due to the eight-run rule.

"He threw awesome," Sharp said of Thomas who allowed just four hits, struck out six, but was hampered by the defense, which committed six errors. "We just couldn't play good enough defense behind him."

Against Eagle Vipers the game was tied 1-1 through the bottom of the sixth when Ben Evans slammed a two-run home run to put ML up 3-1. But in a familiar script, the lead vanished when the Vipers got the first two runners on and then got a home run of their own to take the lead and eventually earn the win.

Medical Lake could have had a bigger cushion but bad base running did them in. "We got thrown out on the bases three times," Sharp said, including twice at third.

Grant Vercoe started the contest against Moses Lake, but errors behind him, and walks delivered by him, earned an early retirement. Sam Gollehon was 3 for 4 and Ben Evans was 2 for 2 to pace the Cardinals. "It was one of those games where Ben Evans was hitting really well," Sharp said.

Gollehon got the start in the final game of pod play Saturday evening versus the River Bandits.

"Walks were his enemy," Sharp said. Surprisingly, despite the slugfest score, Sharp was happy with pitching.

"Errors and missed plays that don't go into the book cost us," he said.

In their final contest versus West Valley, Jake Carr from Liberty High School started and pitched all but the final two outs. He surrendered only four earned runs but defense was the difference as Medical Lake committed 11 miscues.

Evans was on fire and went 4 for 4 with a triple, a pair of doubles and three RBIs. Cale Swanson also went 3 for 5 for the Cards.

Evans came out of a big slump in summer ball last week after going 0 for 18 in recent games. "He had a dead streak where he wasn't hitting anything; when he did hit it was right at somebody," Sharp said.

In that West Valley game, Evans continued to impress as he cranked a drive 384 feet, a foot shy of the fence, Sharp said. "It was a shot at East Valley, it didn't get out; they have a big park."

Also last week, Medical Lake lost a doubleheader to Central Valley 4-2 and 8-1 but no stats were reported.

Medical Lake closes out league play this week with a league make up against University July 5. Thursday, July 6, ML is at Shadle Park, 7 p.m., before playing in their National Division tournament Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

Medical Lake is the current No. 5 team and will face No. 4 with the loser finished and winner moving on the meet No. 1 University later in the day.

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