Steady play gets Cardinals into baseball postseason

There’s no big late-season surge, just a steady pace that is fueling Medical Lake’s run to the playoffs.

The Cardinals played just one game last week, taking a 4-3 win at Deer Park in closing out their Northeast A League season. Medical Lake has won three straight and six of their last seven and finished 11-3 (16-3 overall), in second-place in the NEA. That earned them a bye and a guaranteed game Saturday at Freeman in district play with games either at noon or 2 p.m.

“I’m just happy with our steady pace,” Cardinals’ head coach Kerry Kelly said. “I just hope we’re able to play to the best of our ability and move on, keep on rolling.”

That means making it through a home game May 11 versus the winner of a game played this past Tuesday between Lakeside (10-4 NEA, 12-8) and Chewelah (4-9, 8-11). Medical Lake is in double-elimination territory in the district postseason play at this point.

Earning the runner-up spot in the standings behind Freeman was dependent on Medical Lake winning their final regular-season game with Deer Park, May 3.

And the best way to assure success was Kelly sending his ace Cory Wagner to the mound.

“Cory, wow, what a two games he threw against Deer Park,” Kelly said. “That’s tough to see a team twice and get that many at bats against Cory.” Wagner picked up where he left off on April 28 during a Senior Day start where he limited the Stags to four hits in a 5-1 Cardinal win.

Wagner struck out 11 and scattered seven hits in the win.

Medical Lake broke a 1-1 tie in the top of the fifth, scoring three runs as Ed Murray singled, Drew Hostetter reached on a fielder’s choice and Tyler Munden walked. Three straight singles from Justin Parker, Jayln Musser and Cole Soliday helped clear the bases and gave the Cards a 4-1 lead.

Deer Park took advantage of a pair of errors in the bottom of the second to score a pair of runs that shaved the lead to 4-3.

“Cory should have been out of that inning with four batters,” Kelly said. Fresh in Kelly’s memory were the haunting rallies Deer Park staged in 2015 and swept all three games between the two teams.

“One time (in 2015) I pulled Cory and this time ‘I said you know what, I don’t think I’m going to pull him,” Kelly said.

As effective as Wagner was on the mound, Brayden Hale was at the plate, joining Musser in having 2 for 4 days with the bat.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].