Cannons scramble back in state ALB play

The West Plains Cannons surely could have folded following Saturday's first game in the Washington State American Legion Baseball state tournament in Port Angeles.

Yakima Pepsi Pak's Garrett Leon hit a walk-off grand slam home run that erased a 2-1 Cannons' lead in the bottom of the seventh and delivered his team a 5-2 win.

But through games of July 29, the Cannons have played themselves back into contention for a long-sought title.

With wins of 7-2 over Mt. Spokane on July 28 and 6-3 vs. the Wilder Baseball Club Seniors, July 29, West Plains (2-1 tournament/38-13 overall) fought back to reach the semi-finals on July 30 against Lakeside Recovery (3-0/33-14) from Bellevue.

"It was a tough one to lose, especially against the team we had beaten already this year," head coach Austin Sharp said.

And in retrospect, Sharp suggested he may have left pitcher Luke Dickey (ML) "In a little bit longer than we planned because he was pitching really great."

West Plains staved off elimination scoring all their runs in bunches of three in both the second and fourth innings vs. Wilder (1-2/17-19). And then they left things to Cheney's Coleman Randles who closed out the game with three innings of clutch relief for AJ Michaud who earned the win.

The Cannons led 6-3 and Randles twice got himself out of jams, the first in the bottom of the fifth with one out and runners on second and third where he struck out the last two batters.

Then in the next inning and the bases loaded with two outs Randles got a come-back ground ball to the mound and threw the runner out at first. With just seven pitches he got three outs.

"Our pitching and our defense got us out of a lot of tough jams in that game," Sharp said.

A Medical Lake trio added punch to the lineup as Taylor Oliver had the only multi-hit game (2) while Adam Rutland and Griffin Marshall each had a pair of RBIs.

Jacob Bell's (NW Christian) third-inning home run gave the Cannons a 3-0 lead against league rival Mt. Spokane but it took a late-game surge to secure the win that kept West Plains from an early exit in the double-elimination tournament.

The Cannons crafted some insurance runs, scoring twice in both the top of the sixth and seventh to secure the win doing the damage with just five hits, but using four Wildcat errors to help. Cy Reeves from Lakeside pitched a complete game three-hitter.

Facing Mt. Spokane at state had some special significance considering the Wildcats knocked the Cannons out of the District Tournament in Spokane.

In the opener vs. Pepsi Pak, a team the Cannons had beaten in an earlier tournament, West Plains jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third.

A Brayden Martin (Cheney) walk was followed by Marshall's double and Bell's intentional walk to load the bases. Andrew Roberts' (ML) single scored Martin and Oliver's base hit drove in Marshall who led WP with a pair of hits.

Lakeside has wins over a pair teams the Cannons have played having defeated Mt. Spokane 8-0, Yakima Pepsi Pak 8-2 as well as the Tri City Titans, 6-2. They are a perennial state playoff team and have played in the Legion World Series twice in the past 15 years.

A Cannons' win vs. Lakeside tosses the title into a three-way chase with the Pepsi Pak and Tri Cities Prep winner and would be played July 31.