Pirates batter Bells, finish regular season on high note

Moses Lake secures home field advantage throughout playoffs

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Pirates wrapped up the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League regular season with a pair of wins over the visiting Bellingham Bells over the weekend, taking down the Bells 3-1 on Friday and hammering them 7-1 on Saturday.

With the victories, the Pirates finished the season with a WCCBL-best 29-13 record, giving Moses Lake home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Pirates begin the second season tonight in Wenatchee, taking on the AppleSox in the opening matchup of a best-of-three series. Moses Lake returns to Larson Field Wednesday for the second game of the series, and if necessary a third game will be played Thursday in Moses Lake.

The series looks to be a competitive one, as Moses Lake posted a 4-2 record against the defending WCCBL champions. Three of those six games were decided by a single run, and Moses Lake outscored Wenatchee by just four total runs in the six regular-season games.

Moses Lake's formidable pitching staff will be challenged by an equally impressive Wenatchee offensive lineup. The AppleSox feature three of the top four hitters in the league, and led the WCCBL with a .271 batting average.

Wenatchee isn't the only team that brings a potent offense into the WCCBL divisional series, as the Pirates finished right behind Wenatchee with a .268 average. More importantly, the Pirates' bats appear to be heating up at just the right time.

Moses Lake cranked out 17 hits in their final two games of the season, including six in just 3 2/3 innings Saturday off Bellingham's Paul Applebee, who led the WCCBL with a 0.60 ERA this season. Moses Lake handed Applebee his first loss of the season, and scored five runs off the Bellingham starter. Applebee had allowed just five runs over the course of the entire season entering Saturday's game, making the Pirates' scoring outburst even more impressive.

In Saturday's game, Moses Lake took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Matthew Yerby singled to start the inning, went to second on a error, and scored on a Steve Tinoco single.

In the fourth, a leadoff walk by Mike Capbarat got the Pirates going. A Zach Hedges sacrifice bunt, followed by a Brad Tracy double, brought Capbarat home, and Tracy later came around to score on another Bellingham error.

With two runs in and runners at first and second, Bellingham went to the bullpen and called on reliever Matt Martinez to stop the bleeding. Instead, Martinez promptly surrendered a two-run double to Tinoco and an RBI single to Marcus Tackett. With the Pirates now up 6-0, the game was all but in hand.

Warden product Jorge Reyes made a brief appearance Saturday, striking out the side in the sixth inning as he came in to relieve starter Ben Guidos. Guidos gave up just two base hits and no runs over the five innings he pitched Saturday, striking out eight along the way.

Friday, Moses Lake again struck first when Capbarat led off the fourth inning with a single and later scored on a Michael Ratigan groundout.

The Pirates added to their lead in the fifth inning in the same manner, as Curran Redal led off with a single, went to second on an error and moved to third on a Tinoco sacrifice. Redal later scored on a wild pitch to give Moses Lake a 2-0 lead.

Bellingham answered in the sixth to make it 2-1. Moses Lake starter Josh Fish, who gave up the run on Bellingham's first base hit of the game, gave way to reliever Ben Graham. Graham got the final out of the inning on a play at home that prevented the Bells from tying the game.

Moses Lake's Kevin Coddington opened the eighth with a single, and was eventually driven home with a Steve Swinford sacrifice fly. Moses Lake reliever Lee Roberts pitched a perfect eighth inning, striking out two before Pirates' closer Daniel Wolford came in to end the game and pick up his league-best 11th save of the year.