Errors add up in losses for Medical Lake Legion

If there was an error counter last week for Medical Lake's American Legion Post 196 AA baseball team it might have run out of digits.

The results were not surprising, and they suffered through some humbling losses in Spokane American Legion National Division play with the skid interrupted by Mother Nature.

Medical Lake opened the week with a 10-0 loss at Deer Park on June 7. The next day they lost the opener of a road doubleheader with league-leading Colville, 7-1, but lightening halted game two, tied at 2-2.

The week concluded with football-like score losses 18-3 and 21-13 to the Central Valley/East Valley combined squads at Holliday Field this past Monday, June 11.

In the games that saw ML's division record fall to 2-6, the team committed 21 errors in the five outings, seven in the opener vs. CV/EV.

Deer Park raced to a 5-0 lead after three innings and limited Medical Lake to one hit, that a double by Rory Schuller. Bennett Soliday took the loss, giving up nine runs, just three earned, in three-plus innings. He was not helped by five ML errors.

Sam Gollehon and Mason Hammond each had a pair of hits in the loss to Colville. Alden Kieffer lasted four innings allowing five runs while striking out four. Game-two was halted in the bottom of the fifth due to weather.

Depth, or lack of it, played a big past in the pair of losses to CV/EV as Medical Lake suited just nine players due to illness, injuries and vacation.

"The boys filled in to positions they usually don't play," head coach Austin Sharp wrote in an email.

CV/EV broke the first game wide open with a seven-run second inning and added 10 more in a game shortened to five innings due to the mercy rule. Gollehon had two of the four ML hits. While Soliday was touched for 16 runs in his 2 and 2/3 innings, just five were earned as his team committed seven errors.

Playing as the visitors in the second game, Medical Lake got off to a quick start and led 4-0 after their first trip to the plate. But CV/EV responded with five runs in each of the next two innings.

Trailing 13-6 after four innings, Medical Lake began a comeback, scoring three times in the fifth and four more in the sixth. But CV/EV countered with a five-run fifth and added three more in the sixth before the sprinkler system came on and shut down the game.

Mason Hammond had three hits for Medical Lake and scored three times, while Kieffer added two more.

Hammond drove in three runs with what Sharp called a "slug bunt triple." That's where the batter initially showed he was going to lay down a sacrifice bunt, trying to fool the third baseman. But at the last second Hammond took a full swing and hit it all the way to the fence.

Medical Lake continued its busy schedule, where they have played 10 games in 12 days with three home games. They hosted Chewelah on June 12, play twice against Riverside on June 15 (5 p.m.) and host Rogers June 18 at 7 p.m.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].