No surprise in CWAC North baseball

Ephrata sweeps Omak, clinches eighth straight league title Ratigan improves to 8-0 after holding the Pioneers to four hits

EPHRATA - It was baseball as usual for the Ephrata Tigers on Saturday.

First, Omak fell twice to the Tigers on the diamond and second, Ephrata wrapped up the league title to secure the No. 1 seed in the CWAC North standings. Nothing unusual seems how the Tigers have done that for the eighth straight time.

"It is a nice feeling," said Ephrata head coach Dave Johnson, who all but wrapped up his 35th season as the Tigers' head coach on Saturday.

The Tigers finish the season on Tuesday with Cashmere, then host the fourth seed from the CWAC South in the first round of the CWAC district tournament on Thursday. With a three-man rotation Johnson is confident in, there shouldn't be any problems.

"Fortunately we have three pitchers who can get a weeks rest and that really helps our rotation," Johnson added.

Mike Ratigan took the mound for Ephrata in the first game in a pitcher's duel with Omak's Adam Long. Ratigan started by retiring the first two batters, then hit Ben Carter and gave up a single to Brad Jerstegen before retiring the next batter to end the inning.

After Aaron Key hit a two-out double in the bottom of the first, Ratigan helped his own cause with an RBI single to center field to put Ephrata up 1-0.

The lead was short lived when Robby Bradshaw walked, stole second and third and scored off a Ratigan wild pitch. Bradshaw gave Ratigan trouble in the fifth after a leadoff double, but was left stranded after Ratigan retired the next three batters.

The Tigers got a break in the bottom of the fifth after a defensive letdown by Omak put Key in scoring position with no outs. Jared Torgeson, who walked his two previous atbats, hit a hard ground ball off the glove of Omak's second baseman to score Key for the final run of the game.

Ratigan sat down the next three batters in the sixth, before struggling through the seventh to clinch the win and narrow Ephrata's league clinching number to one game.

The Tigers got a scare in the second game after pitcher Reid Forrest took a line drive off the left wrist. Forrest walked off the field holding his arm, but returned the next inning and eventually pitched a complete game.

"It is doing good after that win," Forrest said about his wrist.

Johnson said he considered taking Forrest out of the game, but felt confident in his return after speaking with the Ephrata trainer. Forrest broke his right forearm during football last season.

Omak took the first lead of the second game off a Long RBI single in the second inning, but back-to-back singles from Aaron Lutz and Danny Grass put Ephrata back on top 2-1. Forrest followed with a three-run double to left field to push the game to 5-1. Forrest had previously gone hitless in his last four at bats.

"I had been struggling all day and I wanted to break the game open with bases loaded, so I got a good pitch, sat on it and drove to the opposite field," Forrest said.

Forrest's performance on the mound wasn't his best stuff, but the Tigers' offense put up seven runs on 12 hits to secure the win.