Moses Lake contingency key part of East's victory

Several Pirates among league leaders going into stretch run

BELLINGHAM — With the highest representation of any club at Tuesday's West Coast Collegiate Baseball League All-Star Game, the Moses Lake Pirates figured to have an impact on the final result.

The Pirates, who sent nine players and head coach Gabe Boruff to Bellingham's Joe Martin Field, did their part to help the East Division All-Stars defeat the West 4-1.

Six of Moses Lake's All-Stars were in the starting lineup Tuesday. Pitcher Josh Fish, a 2004 Bellingham High School graduate, got the start for the East and allowed one run in two innings of work. Third baseman Jesse Ayala drove in the eventual game-winning run with a fielder's choice groundout in the fourth inning.

Zach Hedges added a run-scoring single for the East's final tally in the fifth. Kevin Coddington scored the team's second run in the fourth.

The Pirates even made some noise in the pre-game Home Run Derby, with pitcher/first baseman Michael Ratigan of Ephrata finishing second to Wenatchee's Dillon Baird. Ratigan and Baird finished with the most first-round homers of the seven participating hitters. Neither player hit one over the fence in the final, so the AppleSox slugger was declared the winner for the five homers he hit in round one.

First-half recap

With 15 games left in WCCBL play, Moses Lake owns the league's best record at 19-8 — one game ahead of West-leading Kitsap — and has an all-but-insurmountable seven-game edge over Wenatchee in the East.

The Pirates and AppleSox meet three more times — twice at Moses Lake's Larson Field — from July 30 to Aug. 1.

After a slow start to the summer, the Pirates are leading the league in hitting with a .272 average. Moses Lake's offensive success hasn't derived from power — the Pirates have a league-worst one homer — but the team does rank first with 246 total hits and second with 49 stolen bases.

Leadoff hitter Zach Kim was hitting .400 just a few weeks ago, though a recent slump has dropped his average to .327. That's still the fifth-best mark in the league and the highest of any Pirate. Kim also has a WCCBL-best 37 hits, one better than Wenatchee's Zach Mandelblatt.

Conversely, Mike Capbarat's bat has been hot lately. He enters the second half of the season with a .326 average, nine runs batted in and 13 runs scored. Steve Tinoco (.322, 16 runs, 10 RBIs) and Hedges (.312, seven runs, six RBIs) are also among the league leaders.

The Pirates' success is also due largely to great pitching and defense. Moses Lake's staff has the third-best earned-run average at 2.62, and the guys behind them have compiled a fielding percentage of .969, second-best in the league to Corvallis.

Dale Reneau has been nothing short of spectacular for the Pirates. He's a perfect 4-0 with a 1.21 ERA, the league's fourth-best number. In 37 1/3 innings, he's struck out a league-high 46 hitters and allowed opponents to hit just .180.

Daniel Wolford leads Moses Lake's superb bullpen with seven saves, tying him for the league lead with Kitsap's Joe Hagen. Wolford has a 2.03 ERA in 13.1 innings and is allowing a .163 average to his opponents.