Three innings cause trouble for Medical Lake

Medical Lake American Legion Post 196 AA baseball team concluded last week’s play with a 1-3 record and dropped to 3-11-1 overall in National League play.

The week began with a 3-0 loss at home to Rogers on June 18, a split at Mt. Spokane on June 20 — winning 7-2 before losing 8-3 — and wrapping up things with a 12-8 loss at home to Ferris last Saturday.

“Rory Schuller pitched six solid innings for us,” head coach Austin Sharp wrote in an email. Medical Lake committed errors early that led to three unearned runs, “But we played solid defense rest of the way.”

Base running mistakes cost the team as ML had four runners thrown out on the bases. Schuller and Josh Keifer had the team’s two hits.

In the first game against Mt. Spokane, “Seth Mayer pitched a really nice complete game in under 80 pitches,” Sharp said. “Our defense played error-free baseball for 19 outs as Mayer only struck out two.”

Nick Thompson went 3 for 4 with an RBI. Mayer, Sam Gollehon, Mason Hammond and Trevor Hurt-Moran each had doubles. Schuller had two hits and scored twice. Gollehon, Mayer and Isaac Everett each also had a pair of hits.

The nightcap saw Mt. Spokane score seven runs in the top of the seventh to erase a 3-1 Medical Lake lead. “We committed a few errors that led to timely runs for Mt. Spokane,” Sharp said.

And while they had six hits, including two from Weston Thomas, plus a triple from Gollehon and double by Hammond, “We were never able to string together hits,” Sharp said.

Joe Griffey pitched four innings, leaving with a 4-4 tie against Ferris. “The bullpen couldn’t find the strike zone as we walked five and gave up three hits in the fifth that led to six runs for the visitors.” Thomson had a 3-RBI day with Hammond adding another pair. Gollehon was 2 for 4 scoring three times.

“We played three bad innings all week defensively and those cost us three games,” Sharp said. “We have improved quite a bit from the first games of summer, but need to learn how to play all seven (innings).”

Medical Lake plays June 28 at Rogers at 5:30 p.m. and at Chewelah on July 3 (5:30 p.m.) before beginning play in the Wood Bat Tournament July 5 in the North Central Pod. Their complete game schedule can be found in Sports Week on page 2.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].