Cards in Postseason

MEDICAL LAKE - The boys baseball team did what it needed to do to earn a spot in the Northeast A League playoffs.

Following a split in which they lost to Deer Park 13-3 on April 23, topped Riverside 7-0 on April 27 and played at Newport on April 30, the question remains just who and where the Cardinals play next?

With Lakeside's 9-2 record a lock for first-place, four other teams battled this week for positioning with a potential four-way tie entirely possible between Medical Lake, Deer Park, Freeman and Colville - a half-game separating the group.

The Cardinals got to this point in a down-and-up week, where they were first were dominated and then did the dominating.

"They made a ton of mistakes and then we could not capitalize on them," head coach Austin Sharp said. "We pulled all the right strings we just couldn't execute."

Medical Lake (6-5) limited Deer Park to just seven hits but committed seven errors as the Stags had a quick 6-0 lead following a pair of three-run innings in the first and second in the Holiday Field game.

Of ML's six hits, Andrew Roberts had two, including a double.

The Cardinals got a fast start against the Rams, scoring three runs in their half of the first but not putting the game away until they added three more runs.

That came largely from the performance by pitcher AJ Michaud who threw a seven-inning complete game, striking out nine.

"AJ on the mound, my gosh, he was he was pretty dominant," Sharp said.

Taylor Oliver had the hot bat going 2-for-4 with a double and scoring twice. Michaud and Kendrick Perkins each also had two hits.

Both Oliver and Perkins are seniors, as is Andrew Roberts who also had a hit. "All the seniors got in and got an opportunity to make a play or get at-bats and it was all good," Sharp said.

As for what's ahead other than their final regular season game, Sharp was not even open to a guess and will wait and see.

" I don't even know what the tiebreaker is," he said. "I don't think we've ever had anything like that."