Medical Lake American Legion team jelling

Medical Lake's American Legion baseball team head coach Kerry Kelly went into the season with a lot of doubts.

Their recent five-game winning streak, however, has erased some of that uncertainty for Kelly, but there are still some puzzling aspects of the team in its return to summer baseball after a year's absence.

"We're doing OK, I really feel the last four or five games we seem to really have started to jell," Kelly said. "It's a nice little run, but we'll see."

The recent streak, that improved ML's record to 7-2, includes a doubleheader sweep of Freeman, 8-4 and 6-3 in game played June 7. Visiting Northwest Christian was drubbed 16-7, June 9 and last Sunday, Medical Lake swept visitors from Idaho, Northern Lakes, 17-10 and 8-5.

"We've been able to manage it so every kid gets playing time, so far, every game," Kelly said.

Kelly said they scheduled a number of doubleheaders so he can put together an A and B roster. "(That's) not necessarily meaning A is better than B but that gives us an opportunity to give full games to get their three, four or five at bats."

While specific stats were not available, Kelly singled out freshman Sam Gallohon. "Sam has been hitting and playing well," his coach said. Sophomore Ben Evans has been catching early after Phillip Murray switched to pitching.

Kyle Thompson, who spent spring ball trying to get work on the mound, was unable to do so with Cory Wagner and Brayden Hale sharing the top spots for the Cardinals in Northeast A League play. The junior has been pitching well, Kelly said.

While the talent seems to be coming into its own, a bonus considering the youth that is present on the team, some of the scores so far have been baffling, Kelly said.

"We lost to Chewelah by the 10-run rule (May 30) and then we beat them by eight or nine runs (9-1) in the second game," Kelly said.

Same scenario was true in ML's first road game, a trip to Northwest Christian June 2 where they suffered a 13-3 loss.

"They laid one on us," Kelly said, but his squad returned the favor, spanking NWC 16-7 last Thursday, June 9, at home. "We lured them into a false sense of security and get them on the back side."

The hard thing about summer baseball is there is not school to keep players busy during the day and they do a lot of other things, Kelly said.

"So you don't have the consistency and that may factor in where you might be low one day," he said.

A number of players participated in a football camp recently and then suited up for Legion games. "You would have thought that would have brought us down a little bit, but actually was right in the middle of our five-game winning streak," Kelly said.

"There's part of me that says 'you guys need to go out and work hard for three hours before the game and barely be able to make the warm-ups,'" he added.

On any given day the stats and standings can be tossed out, Kelly said.

"In baseball you can have a pitcher that's hot or you have a couple of plays that can really even out the playing field," Kelly said.

Kelly also said in the summer there are opportunities for coaches to take on other roles. Last week, he sat in the football press box in center field, took notes and let assistant coach Rob Beamer run the game.

He also brought in Adam Paulson to work with pitchers. The former Cardinal standout is a member of the Lewis and Clark State Warriors, the just crowned NAIA World Series champs.

"It's just a good thing to have a bunch of different eyes and maybe a different angle to how to approach this or how to approach that," Kelly said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].