Dirt Dawgs return to state

The Medical Lake Dirt Dawgs do not have far to travel having clinched their second consecutive berth in the Single A state American Legion State Tournament.

They face Northern Lakes at 7 p.m. on July 22 at Shadle Park’s AK Jackson Field. Like other American Legion state tournaments this one also runs through July 25.

Medical Lake’s journey to state included games against Kettle Falls, a 20-5 win and an 18-8 victory over Lewis and Clark, both July 13. The Northern Lakes Mountaineers and Chewelah rattled off consecutive convincing wins, 12-2 and 17-3, July 14 and 15.

The Dirt Dawgs split a pair of Sunday, July 16 games, beating Mt. Spokane 13-2 before losing to undefeated (19-0) regular-season champs, Hartline 5-3, which scored an insurance run in the top of the seventh.

AJ Michaud, Levi Brower and Levi Wills each had two hits to lead the DDs in that game.

Medical Lake scored runs in bunches of fours — three times in the game — against Mt. Spokane as Brower and Emilio Resendiz both had multiple-hit games and Michaud pitched a nine-strikeout complete game.

Chewelah earned its first win over ML this season and did so convincingly earning a 10-run rule win scoring 10 runs in their half of the fifth. The Dirt Dawgs were limited to just two hits from Ian Thompson and Kyle Kipp.

Medical Lake saw any chances of a win slip away against Northern Lakes when the visitors scored twice in the sixth and four more in the seventh. Brower and Wills had the only multi-hit day at the plate.

The Dirt Dawgs got progressively more offensive against Lewis and Clark leading just 1-0 after an inning but ending the game early with a nine-run fourth.

Brower led seven Dirt Dawgs with double-digit hits going three-for-four. Michaud and Kipp each drove in three runs.

Medical Lake unloaded early on Kettle Falls leading 18-0 and scoring in each of the first four innings, including nine in the third.

Thompson (3-for-3, 3 RBI) and Michaud (3-for-3, 4 RBI) were the only double-digit hitters.

While staying close to home for state has its benefits, head coach Lance Michaud said he misses the opportunity. “I wish we were still traveling…it’s fun for the boys,” he wrote in a text message. “But we’ll still do some team building stuff and treat it like traveling.”

The Cheney Summer Hawks A team lost a tough 2-1 game to Chewelah, July 13 in which Carter Owens pitched a complete game while giving up two unearned runs.

“We had some base running mistakes that cost us some runs,” head coach Aaron Rockey reported.

Later that day the Trail Orioles scored 11 runs in the first inning in a season-ending 18-6 loss.

“It was a great group of players who got better through the year,” Rockey added of his team that finished 18-8.