Inconsistencies plague ML baseball crew

By LEE HUGHES

Staff Reporter

In a game involving a lot of numbers, score is king. In Medical Lake's case there are far too few numbers in the win column. In their last three games the Cardinal baseball team has been outscored 50-9.

Medical Lake at Colville

It was a bruising from the get-go in Colville, 4-0 in the Northwest A League and 8-0 overall, on Tuesday, April 9 when the Indian's bats hit at-will off Cardinal Joe Griffey and Weston Thomas's pitches, allowing four hits, nine runs and five earned runs for a 12-run first inning and leaving the Cards on life support the remainder of the game. Ben Soliday closed the game on the mound, minimizing the damage with a single hit and one strikeout in the final inning.

Six of the Cards' seven total errors occurred in the first inning, according to head coach Austin Sharp.

"We just couldn't play defense," Sharp said, summarizing the game. "We had a bunch of errors in pitching. It was just a bad first inning."

The Indian's managed 11 hits and 15 runs in 28 at-bats, with 12 RBIs. Two Colville batters were struck out.

The Cards managed a single run on three hits in the 15-1 loss.

Medical Lake vs. Deer Park

The Cards tried to make up for the previous loss by taking on college-bound Deer Park (6-3, 3-2) pitcher Hunter Dryden, who pitched a complete game in a 2-1 Card loss.

But Cardinal Sam Gollehon also pitched a complete game, allowing two earned runs on four hits. And while he walked three, he struck out six on 101 pitches - over half of them strikes.

"Sam Gollehon did a great job," Sharp said. "He was errorless."

Still, Dryden kept the Card bats essentially silent, striking out 15 of the Cardinal's 25 at-bats, allowing only five hits and leaving four runners on base.

Freeman vs. Medical Lake

The second game of this doubleheader against defending state champ Freeman (3-1, 2-1) on Saturday, April 13, at Whitworth College was called due to rain in the third inning, and perhaps that was a good thing after the 24-3 pummeling the Cardinals endured in game one.

The depth of the Medical Lake bullpen was put to the test when five different pitchers took to the hill.

"We put some guys out there who didn't have a lot of experience on the mound," Sharp said.

Thomas, who, in Sharp's estimation "has been solid all year," started the game pitching, and in just under two innings allowed a six-hit, 12-run leak in the hull of the Cardinal ship before being relieved by Nick Thompson. The leak only got bigger as the game went on.

By the end of the five innings the Cards had given up 24 runs on 24 at-bats, allowed 12 walks and 13 RBIs, and hit at least three batters to give the Scotties the lopsided win.

"It got pretty rough," Sharp said. "We had to get through that dang game. It was pouring rain from 10 a.m. to 4 when we left."

Gollehon scored two runs on one hit in a single at-bat. With three RBIs in three at-bats, Mason Hammond was responsible for driving in all three Card runs.

Freeman vs. Medical Lake

The Cards managed more control on Monday's make-up game, again at Whitworth, this time under cool but sunny skies. But it wasn't enough for the win, blowing a 3-2 lead from the first three innings on Saturday, the Cards allowed the Scotties to bring in an additional seven runs in a 9-4 loss.

"We came out with some energy at the start," Sharp said. "But we couldn't score runners on base and our pitching just flat-out walked to many batters."

Soliday started the game in the rain Saturday on the mound, pitching two innings and allowing three hits, two earned runs, two strikeouts, while walking three batters.

They walked 10, in fact, while allowing the Scotties nine runs on seven hits in 25 at-bats. Joe Griffey took over and pitched through the last five innings into the make-up game Monday, allowing seven hits, nine runs - eight earned - five strikeouts, and allowing seven batters to walk to first.

Offensively, the Cards' left 10 runners stranded, and had four runs on eight hits on 26 at-bats, and were struck-out eight times.

The Cards challenge, it seems, is a lack of inning–by-inning consistency.

"We've lost three or four games by a large amount," Sharp said. "All of them were one bad inning."

Medical Lake is 1-5 in Northwest A league play and 1-10 overall as they head into a busy week. As of press time the Cards were scheduled to play Lakeside (1-5), then Newport (1-3) on Friday, Lakeside again on Saturday, followed by Chewelah (7-3) Monday, then Northwest Christian (2-5) Tuesday, April 23.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].