Rough week for ML baseball

It was, to say the least, a week that most would rather forget in the Medical Lake community.

And that seemed most certain for the Cardinal baseball team which went winless in three Northeast A League games, losing 5-1 at home to Riverside on April 10, then being clubbed in a doubleheader loss to Freeman, 20-1 and 15-0 Saturday, April 14.

In Saturday’s games, played at Whitworth University’s Merkel Field and rescheduled from the previous day at Medical Lake (1-4 NEA, 3-7 overall), the team played under the pall of bad news.

First it was word of a serious accident involving members of the track team; later came news that one of their classmates had died.

“Our boys had a rough day,” head coach Austin Sharp wrote in an email. “As soon as we arrived at school most of them found out about the accident that had happened,” but he said they decided to play against the league-leading Scotties.

Things got worse. “About 30 minutes before the game I had to inform them of the student that passed,” Sharp said. “It was a hard day to go out and play a game. “

All things considered, it was not a bad start against Freeman (5-0, 10-2) which built a 5-0 lead through their first two innings. But things fell apart as the Scotties scored 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth and earned a “mercy-rule” shortened win.

The Cardinals were limited to just two hits with Sam Gollehon and Dylan Yarnell reaching base.

Freeman’s Jace Phelan threw a similar gem in the second game, striking out seven and giving up just two hits to Yarnell and Chris Hurt-Moran. But instead of a quick start, it was a slow-roast defeat as the Scotties scored their first four runs in the second inning and continued to pound away.

Ten runs over the final two innings put this one in the books after five innings on a day where intermittent rain drops pelted the field.

“They had moments where they nearly crumbled on each other, but found the strength to stick together,” Sharp said.

Of course, their opponent Saturday, Freeman, were experienced at working through tragedy. “Freeman was great at comforting our boys after the game, as they have dealt with loss recently,” Sharp said, referring to last September’s school shooting there.

“After the game, I told our boys that they need to go home and hug their families and cherish the moments they have with them, and that baseball was second to that,” Sharp said.

In Tuesday’s game with Riverside, the Rams (4-1, 5-3) broke open a close 2-1 game by scoring two runs in the top of the sixth and one in the seventh for the win to stay within a game of Freeman for the NEA lead.

Ben Evans, Sam Griffey and Nick Thompson each had two hits for the Cardinals who — weather permitting — were scheduled to host Colville on April 17, travel to Chewelah April 20 and host Chewelah April 21 at noon.

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