Cardinals extend baseball season

MEDICAL LAKE -- It was a pretty good week for Austin Sharp and his Medical Lake baseball team.

The Cardinals finished 1-1-1, yes, that’s IS a tie, and played their way into what could be an extended post-season.

Oh, by-the-way, Sharp and his wife Jessica became first-time parents Tuesday with the birth of son Jett Henry.

Admittedly there has been little sleep last week for Sharp as he adjusts to life as a dad, juggles work as a general contractor and figures how to fit in some baseball coaching.

The week began with Medical Lake and Freeman tying 4-4 in the final Northeast A League regular season game, the same day as Jett. That contest was delayed by lightning and then reverted back to the last complete inning where the deadlock stood.

Medical Lake and Freeman would meet again in the loser-out opening round of the district playoffs May 7 with Medical Lake winning 5-3. That landed the Cardinals into a bracket where they can play up to three games. That included being hammered by league champ Colville, 12-0, Saturday.

In the win over the Scotties, a game played at Whitworth University, the sixth-seed Cardinals struck early, scoring three times in their half of the first. They padded that lead with a run in the second and then held on.

Freeman scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth, but Medical Lake got a “small-ball” insurance run in the top of the sixth to clinch it.

Griffin Marshall led off with a two-out walk and would score when a third-strike pitch to A.J. Michaud was dropped by the Freeman catcher. His throw to third base sailed past allowing Marshall to score.

Luke Dickey pitched a 5-hit complete game, striking out 13 for Medical Lake in yet another stellar performance.

“That’s pretty good, he has 60 strikeouts in five games pitched this year,” Sharp said of the future Wenatchee Valley Junior College signee.

Out of pitching, Sharp inserted his do-everything freshman, Michaud, into the Colville game, but there was no stopping the bats of the Crimson Hawks who smacked 14 hits. Luke Anderson limited the Cardinals to one hit from Clinton Zimmerman.

“A.J. has done a good job, I mean, I’ve pitched him against Deer Park, Colville and Lakeside,” Sharp said. “I have not given him an easy start.”

In the tie game conducted under threatening skies in Medical Lake, the Cardinals had a 4-1 lead through four innings before the Scotties tied it. Playing under the lights at Holliday Field, the teams sat through the mandatory lightning delay before the coaches agreed to call it. The outcome meant nothing since playoff seeding had been pre-determined in case of a tie.

“Both coaches agreed we weren’t gonna’ stay there till midnight,” Sharp said.

Plus, Sharp had a baby boy to get to know.

Medical Lake played Lakeside on May 9 at Whitworth in a game that will decide if the Cardinals play at home Saturday, May 13, against a Caribou Trail League opponent — should they win — or hit the road to Chelan to face a pitcher who throws heat in the high 80s.