Cannons launch season

MEDICAL LAKE - His vacation lasted just about a week, if that, before Medical Lake baseball Coach Austin Sharp turned his focus to a summer job of running the AAA American Legion Cannons.

Newly named as the West Plains Cannons - opting to drop Spokane from the title - the team opened its bid to return to the state playoffs for a fourth consecutive season May 19 with a non-league game 7-6 win at home against River City of Post Falls.

Cheney's Brayden Martin drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning with a fielders' choice.

As for the name change, Sharp said "Every away tournament we go to we get dirty looks when we say we're from Spokane.

"So, and we don't even have one kid that lives in Spokane."

The change to West Plains reflects the complexion of the roster for the three-time defending Spokane ALB 18U champions.

Currently, seven rostered players have Medical Lake roots and another four hail from Cheney. There are one each from Reardan, Lakeside and Northwest Christian.

Two notables who return home are Luke Dickey who played this past season at Wenatchee Valley Junior College and Griffin Marshall who moved with his Air Force family last year to Altus, Oklahoma but reunites with familiar faces.

"Luke has been my dude last few years," Sharp wrote in a text message. "Glad he returned, he got a lot of calls to go play other places."

The AAA division expands to eight teams with the addition of Chewelah and Mount Spokane.

The Cannons play home games at Holliday Field in Medical Lake..

The next home game is at 5:30 p.m. May 28 against the visiting Spokane Bandits.