Big bats power Medical Lake baseball

MEDICAL LAKE - The big bats came out both for and against the Medical Lake High School baseball team last week as the Cardinals won two, lost one and had no decision in another contest.

Medical Lake swept a Northeast A League doubleheader on the road at Riverside 14-7 and 13-8 April 17 and lost a slugfest 20-12 at home to Deer Park. A second game was cancelled due to rain with ML leading 3-1 and will not be made up.

In the loss to Deer Park the Cardinals jumped out to a 9-0 lead after three innings. But Stag bats came alive when the Cards went to the bullpen and scored 15 runs before ML could make an out in the top of the fourth. Deer Park got those runs off of 11 hits and a Medical Lake error.

Cameron Comer was 3-for -4 with a double and run scored. Griffey was 1-for-1 with a walk, a pair of runs scored and a 2-RBI double in the first inning. Freshman Andrew Roberts also had a 2-RBI double. Eugene Haas also knocked in two more runs with sacrifice plays.

Pitching struggled again at Riverside in the opening game as Medical Lake pitchers walked 12 and hit nine batters, but only gave up one hit in seven innings.

Hitting, however, bailed Medical Lake out as the Cardinals got 11 hits, stole 15 bases and really executed the short game with six successful bunt plays. 

Jacob Edison was 3-for-5, scored twice and had four stolen bases. He closed out the game recording nine outs, giving up just one hit and struck out seven. Kaleb Cain was 1-for-2 but got on base three more times with walks. He scored three runs and added three stolen bases. Joe Oliver was 2-for-3 with 3 RBI while Haas had two runs batted in with sacrifice fly and a safety squeeze.

In the second game, down 4-0 after two innings, Medical Lake had four bunt base hits and scored seven runs to take the lead for good in the top of the third.

They added five more in the fourth inning to seal the deal. Edison was 2-for-3, had two walks and stole four more bases.

Corbin Roberts, no relation to Andrew, was 3-for-4.  

Other big bats were varsity first timers with Jalijah Meacham going 3-for-5 with 3 RBI, two runs scored and three stolen bases. Adam Rutland was 2-for-4 with a double, a pair of runs scored and an RBI. Andrew Roberts had an RBI and a double.

Medical Lake (3-1) hosted Freeman in an April 25 contest and play at Colville, Saturday, May 1 at noon.

Soccer

Medical Lake split Northeast A League matches last week and face a busy schedule this week with three contests.

Last Tuesday (April 20) Medical Lake beat Deer Park 6-2 at home with Braxton Charon, Reid Headrick and Sam Ornelas each scoring a pair.  Grant Spangler had two assists as well.  

"On Thursday, we struggled at Lakeside and lost 7-0," assistant coach Dan Collins wrote in an email. "We had opportunities to score late, but unfortunately ended up with no goals." 

Vying for a top-three finish in NEA play, the Cardinals have a pivotal week.  On April 26 they played host to Riverside, then hit the road at Colville today (Thursday, April 29) and then Friday, April 30 we have the "Senior Day" game against Newport. 

Tennis (girls)

It was a winless week for Medical Lake's girl's tennis team as they dropped contests to Newport 5-0 on April 19, Deer Park 5-0 on April 21 at home and then 4-1 at Colville.

Notable in the meeting with Newport was the play of Alanyah Bender and

Jasmine Lundberg who lost 2-6, 2-6 at No. 1 doubles. "Alanyah and Jasmine are both new tennis players, so each match is an opportunity for them to learn and improve," their head coach Dawn Eliassen wrote in an email.

Henna VanDingenen drew Eliassen's praise in her 2-6, 2-6 loss. "Henna's beginning to recognize her opponents' weaknesses or inconsistencies and play to them," Eliassen said.

Bender and Lundberg played the most competitive of rounds vs. Colville and emerged with the lone Cardinal win on the day, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).

Track and field

Lakeside swept Medical Lake in a pair of Northeast A League boys and girls dual meets April 23 at home. The boys lost 95.5 to 54 while the girls were defeated 84-60.

Both teams established 24 new personal records in a variety of events and some athletes made news in their march into Cardinal record books.

Connor Palmen went all the way to the No. 5 spot at 2:00.79 second runner-up effort in the 800 meters. Kayla Ramsey's 5:34.12 was a PR in the 1,600 meters for the No. 2 all-time race at Medical Lake. Ramsey also added a PR and a seventh-place all-time in the 800 at 2:26.77.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.