Pirates slam AppleSox, advance to championship

Zach Kim's grand slam highlights Pirates' victory

MOSES LAKE - The Moses Lake Pirates charged back from an early 1-0 deficit, thanks in large part to a Zach Kim grand slam in the fourth inning, to defeat the Wenatchee AppleSox 7-2 in the third and deciding game of the WCCBL East Divisional Series Thursday.

With the win, Moses Lake advances to take on Corvallis Knights in the WCCBL Championship Series beginning this Saturday in Corvallis.

In the fourth inning, with the Pirates clinging to a 2-1 lead, Moses Lake capitalized on several Wenatchee errors and mistakes to turn a nervous Larson Field crowd into one celebrating a probable championship series berth.

Kevin Coddington led off the inning with a walk in an at-bat kept alive when Wenatchee's first-baseman dropped an easy popup in foul territory between home and first base. A Zach Hedges sacrifice moved Coddington to second, and Ryan Bernsen then came back from an 0-2 count to earn a walk.

Following Bernsen, Moses Lake native Curran Redal reached on an error by Wenatchee second baseman Curtis Van Wyck to load the bases for Kim. The University of San Francisco product got ahead 3-0, then picked up a pair of strikes to push the count full. Wenatchee's Garrett Dorn, on in relief of AppleSox starter Nick Brantley, then served up a pitch that Kim hammered deep over the right field fence and into the night. Kim came to the plate looking to simply pick up a run with a ball into the outfield and pad the Moses Lake lead, but got a pitch that was destined to have a much bigger impact on the game.

"He just left one middle-in," said Kim of Dorn's 3-2 delivery. "I was pretty sure I got enough wood on it. When you're not thinking about it (hitting a home run) and put good wood on it, that's what happens."

"After that we played relaxed ball," added the Moses Lake second baseman.

It was the culmination of a turnaround that saw the Pirates come back from a 11-2 drubbing in the opening game of the playoffs to regain the form that made them the WCCBL's best team over the 42 game regular season.

"The mindset changed 360 degrees from the first game," said Kim. "We're feeling pretty good as a team. It feels good to get back on track."

While each team added a run in the late innings to set the final score at 7-2, Wenatchee put up little challenge to the Pirates over the final five innings of the game. The AppleSox collected just three base hits from the fifth inning on, and were well controlled by a stout Pirates' bullpen. Lee Roberts came on in the seventh to strike out the side for Moses Lake, and faced the minimum in the eighth before giving way to Warden's Jorge Reyes.

Reyes, who stepped into the closer's role for an absent Daniel Wolford, pitched the ninth inning to lock up the Pirates' victory over Wenatchee.

After Wenatchee took a 1-0 lead in the first inning off a Van Wyck double followed by a Hawkins Gebbers single, Moses Lake could have easily went into panic mode as they trailed early in Thursday's elimination game. Instead, the Pirates stuck to their game plan of playing aggressive and leaving it all on the field.

"It's a long game," said Moses Lake coach Gabe Boruff. "Our mentality didn't change. Play like you've got nothing to lose."

The Pirates did just that, quickly battling back to take a 2-1 lead in the second inning thanks to another series of Wenatchee miscues and mistakes.

Marcus Tackett led off the inning by taking a pitch in the shoulder to earn a trip to first base. After a pair of Moses Lake groundouts moved Tackett to third, Hedges became the second victim of a errant pitch from the arm of Wenatchee starter Brantley.

Brantley control problems continued Bernsen came to the plate, as a wild pitch hit the Wenatchee catcher in the head and ricocheted to the backstop, allowing Tackett to score from third and Hedges to advance to second. From there, Bernsen lined a single into right field to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.

"I knew when we put up the two runs in the second inning that we were going to persevere," said Boruff.

Boruff had to watch much of the Pirates' exciting victory from a distance, as he was ejected in the top of the forth inning for arguing an offensive interference call by one of his players in the bottom of the third that got Wenatchee out of a situation with Pirates at second and third base.

"We deserve better than that," said Boruff of the interference call that ended the third inning.