Long weeks behind, ahead for Cannons

CHENEY — It was just seven games in five days. But last week’s schedule for the West Plains Cannons AAA American Legion team has head coach Austin Sharp feeling it was much longer.

A yawn in the middle of an interview provided perfect punctuation.

The Spokane ALB league leaders maintained that status with a pair of victories over Chewelah, 5-4 and 5-3 on June 18 and kept the Cannons a perfect 10-0 and with a 1 1/2 game lead over Mount Spokane. (The Cannons played the Wild in a pair of games June 25.)

“Cy Reeves pitched that 5-4 game,” Sharp said. “He’s been awesome,” his coach said of the Lakeside High School product who had a complete game with 10 strikeouts. Clayton Wood from Cheney (2-for-3 with 2 RBIs) and Medical Lake’s AJ Michaud (2-for-2) were multiple hit performers in the game.

In the second game the Cannons made a 3-1 first inning lead stand up with Adam Rutland being tested for his first start pitching and Michaud coming on in relief.

Now comes the shift to what Sharp referred to as “tournament season” where his team traveled to Missoula last week and is in the Pepsi Pak and Spokane Wood Bat tourneys the next two weeks.

Missoula had both familiar faces with Mount Spokane and Gonzaga Prep, plus Great Falls and the host Mavericks.

West Plains opened with an 8-7 win over Mount Spokane in what Sharp called a “bullpen day” featuring three different pitchers. Clayton Wood was the lone multiple hit guy going 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs.

Defense did in the Cannons against Missoula in an 8-1 loss, June 21 where the Mavericks coupled just three hits with six errors for the win. Jacob Bell from Northwest Christian had three hits and the lone RBI for West Plains.

The following day’s 3-2 win over Great Falls was a game that Sharp might like to use as a demonstration of how baseball is played.

“They played real clean defense, we played clean defense,” Sharp said

Bell stroked a pair of doubles, scoring twice and driving in a run while Tate Nelson and Reeves combined for a five-hitter.

The confounding nature of baseball returned later in the day where G-Prep scored 13 runs in the second inning on the wat to a 17-3 win.

Prep had nine consecutive ground balls that turned out to be run-producing hits — but just as easily inches away from outs. “They just found a hole, I’ve never seen before,” Sharp said in amazement.

Just as strange, perhaps, were the two hits from Clayton Woods — both triples — with him scoring twice.

The teams would face each other again for third place and for the fifth time in 12 days of either league or tournament play. Prep would earn a walk-off win, 9-8 on a wild pitch.

Sharp leaves the week behind shaking his head knowing his team did a lot of things right — such as producing runners on base, yet not being able to score.

“We had 11 total base runners and we only got one to run that one in three innings,” he said. “It’s one of those games you can do everything right and still not win.”

There was a notable discovery from the personnel standpoint, Sharp said.

“We found a pretty good relief from the Coleman Randles kid from Cheney,” Sharp said. “He didn’t pitch much for them this year, but he threw four innings this weekend, two in two different games and he led our team in strikeouts.”

Next up are a pair of tournaments with play in Selah, Wash. at the Pepsi Park Tournament, June 27-30, followed by being pod hosts in the Spokane Wood Bat Tournament, July 4-5 and perhaps beyond.