Cannons third baseman Joe Oliver just misses the tag on a sliding Palouse runner.
The 2022 American Legion Senior District Champions from left are Austin Sharp, Luke Dickey, Mike Constantine, Kaleb Cain, Christian Siguaw, Joe Griffey, Cameron Windhorst, Caden Day, Eugene Haas III, Eli Chabot, Isaac Nesbitt, Jamel Chabot, Denton Deal, Taylor Oliver, Andrew Roberts, Tate Nelson, Joe Oliver and Fred Wagner.
CHENEY-The Spokane Cannons took two of three ball games over this past weekend on the diamond at Medical Lake High School to claim the Spokane American Legion Senior District Championship.
"Winning the district championship was pretty cool," Coach Austin Sharp said. "Losing the first game was a heart breaker for the boys after leading 5–1 going into the sixth. We committed a couple of errors and were down 9–5 going into the bottom of the seventh but came back to tie it, 9-all. They scored and unearned run in the top of the eighth and we went down in order in the bottom of the inning and dropped the game."
The team made up of players from Cheney, Medical Lake, Davenport and Central Valley and Reardan opened tournament play with a close 10–9 loss to Palouse AAA Saturday afternoon, July 16.
The Cannons bounced back in Game 2 with a convincing 12–2 win over the Spokane Bandits Saturday evening and then laid a 29–12 hurtin' on Palouse in a rematch in the title game on Sunday, July 17.
"I didn't know what we were expecting on Sunday," Sharp said. "But it sure wasn't' a 29-12 ball game."
Palouse took an early 2–0 lead in the bottom of the first inning in the championship game. The Cannons responded with five runs in the top of the second to go up 5–2. Back-to-back singles, a walk and a Cannons error led to five Palouse runs and a 7–5 lead in the bottom of the second.
The Cannons exploded for 16 runs over the next inning and a half to blow things wide open, 21–7. Palouse responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth and added three in the fifth to close the gap to 21–12. An eight-run sixth inning for the Cannons slammed the door shut on Palouse.
Jamel Chabot and Eugene Haas came up big at the dish for the Cannons. Chabot was 4-for-5 at the plate with six RBI and three runs scored. Haas had five hits in six at-bats, with three runs scored and five RBI.
Isaac Nessbitt got the start and the win on the bump tossing four and two-thirds innings giving up 11 runs(eight earned) of 10 hits, walking four and fanning eight Palouse hitters.
"It wasn't our best day defensively (six errors) or our best day on the mound," Sharp said. "But we had a lot of hits and ran the bases well and even pulled off a suicide squeeze. We didn't strike out once in the game-weren't looking for walks, only for hits."
State tournament action gets underway on Saturday at AK Jackson Field at Shadle Park High School in Spokane. The Cannons are the No. 1 seed from Area 3 and host either Bellingham or Wilder in Game 4 at 7 p.m.
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