It was a long day at the Shadle Park diamond as the Spokane American Legion Cannons took on visiting Pullman in a doubleheader on Thursday, June 27, dropping both to the leagues number one team.
“Offensively we were clicking,” head coach Austin Sharp said of game one. “We did really well.”
Lead hitter, Medical Lake’s Mason Hammond, had a great game, hitting two doubles, an RBI, a stolen base and brought in two runs. Keegan Cottrell hit a single, a double and an RBI.
Van Vega also had four for two singles and two runs.
“We were scoring four out of seven innings,” Sharp said.
The Cannons had a three-run lead going into the fourth behind Robert Hatten’s pitching before Rory Schuller came in on relief for one third of an inning, walking a single batter.
Then Keegan Cottrell took the hill, and immediately Pullman locked in on Cottrell’s pitches, sending seven runs to the plate in the fourth before the Cannon defense could close the inning. Cottrell pitched the remainder of the game, allowing nine total hits.
“It wasn’t a bad defensive inning, it’s just that Pullman can hit,” Sharp said.
The Cannon’s would score three more runs — one in the bottom of the fourth and two in the fifth — but Pullman would bring in four additional runs before closing the game 11-6.
“The story was the one bad inning,” Sharp said. “It wasn’t the defense. Pullman’s just a good team.”
Game two was a shutout, with Pullman taking an early 10 run lead going into the third inning, then shutting down the Cannon offense.
“It was not as clean, obviously,” Sharp said.
Brent Keith, who had pitched well at the Yakima tournament the previous week, started on the mound, and allowed all 10 runs.
“He just couldn’t find it and get it going,” Sharp said. “He competed, but I had to leave him out there longer than I normally would.”
Nick Swenson came on in relief and pitched nearly 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit but striking out four batters.
“That’s the best he’s pitched all year,” Sharp said of Swenson. “Of course, we were down 10 nothing when he comes in to do it.”
As of press time Monday, Sharp was planning to start Swenson on the mound in the 5-15-2 Cannons final two league games in a doubleheader against the Bandits in Medical Lake.
Then it’s the 4th of July Wood Bat Tournament in Medical Lake beginning Friday and running through Sunday, 18 games in all for each of the 32 teams at various sites in the league.
“It’s a lot of baseball,” Sharp said.
The Medical Lake AA Post 196 players will be supporting the tournament with field maintenance and concessions, according to Sharp.
He said there might be a pickup game next week, and then it’s off to Whitefish Tournament on July 11, followed by a final game in Medical Lake against the Prairie Cardinals.
The American Legion season comes to a close beginning July 19 with the district championships at Shadle Park.
Lee Hughes can be reached at lee@cheneyfreepress.com.
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