Medical Lake sweeps Reardan in baseball

Medical Lake baseball was the lone West Plains team to have not taken a rest from competition during spring break, playing a non-league doubleheader against Reardan April 5.

In a pair of games originally scheduled to be played at Holliday Field in Medical Lake, but moved due to poor playing conditions, the Cardinals swept both contests against the 2B Screaming Eagles 15-1 and 9-2.

Played in swirling 30 mile-per-hour winds, the games saw Medical Lake win the first with a fast start and the second with a similar finish.

Scoring four runs in the first inning and tacking on another seven in the second, ML led 14-0 through three on the way to the five-inning, 10-run rule shortened game.

"The first game we played a ton of small ball bunting and stealing, hit and run," head coach Austin Sharp said. "I don't think we hit but just a couple of baseballs out of the infield?"

The Cardinals still rattled off 10 hits with Andrew Firestone going 3-for-4 and five runs batted in. Taylor Oliver and Andrew Roberts had two hits each and Kaleb Cain a double for his hit.

Luke Dickey pitched four innings of one-hit ball, striking out seven. Cain came in for one inning of relief and struck out two.

Game two was an opportunity for Sharp to get a sneak-peek at his American Legion AAA prospect Tate Nelson from Reardan. Nelson, who earlier no-hit Kettle Falls, was, as advertised. He limited Medical Lake to just two runs and five hits through 5-plus innings.

Then came the strange top-of-the-sixth.

Nelson was pulled because he was needed for Reardan's return to league play this weekend. He left the game trailing 2-1, but with two outs after a double play.

"The runner (Robertson) didn't see the ball popped up straight to the catcher and so they got a double play," Sharp explained.

But the Cardinals would make the most of that one out and send six batters to the plate on walks by Ian Thompson, Cain and Dickey, singles from Roberts and Zimmerman, plus an error on a ball put in play by Oliver and produced seven Medical Lake runs.

The inning also featured the strange coincidence of Roberts batting twice and being put out twice. He was caught off first base in that earlier double play and was then out at the plate trying to score in the sixth. Roberts did, however, have a single and drove in a pair of runs.

Dickey and Zimmerman each had a pair of hits for the Cardinals (3-0 NEA, 6-3 overall).

Freshman A.J. Michaud threw six innings and struck out five while scattering five hits.

The Reardan game was Medical Lake's final non-leaguer before a grueling string of Northeast A League games.

"We get into that stretch of we have Colville, Deer Park twice and Lakeside next weekend," Sharp said. "This is a tough part of our schedule."

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