Pirates claim Kitsap series
Nate Roberts (Seattle University) of the Moses Lake Pirates helped add to his team’s lead with this fourth inning sacrifice bunt in last night’s game against Kitsap.
During last night’s game, Moses Lake Pirates head coach Steve Keller (right) found time for some individual instruction with Bobby Lewis. Keller saw his improving squad defeat Kitsap 4-1 at Larson Field to up their WCL record to 8-13 and claim the three-game series over the visiting BlueJackets.
MOSES LAKE — An 11-hit attack and the solid pitching of Scott Birdwell (Vanguard University) and Eric Yardley (Seattle University) was enough to propel the Moses Lake Pirates to a 4-1 win over the visiting Kitsap BlueJackets last night.
MOSES LAKE — An 11-hit attack and the solid pitching of Scott Birdwell (Vanguard University) and Eric Yardley (Seattle University) was enough to propel the Moses Lake Pirates to a 4-1 win over the visiting Kitsap BlueJackets last night.
The win gave the Pirates (8-16 overall, 7-14 in West Coast League play), their second series victory this season in front of their last game at Larson Field until next weekend.
An announced total of 567 fans watched on a gloomy, lightly rainy night, as Birdwell pitched 5.1 innings and struck out seven while allowing on one run.
“It was a great job by Scott with no leadoff hitters getting on base all night,” Moses Lake head coach Steve Keller said. “He located pitches where he wanted and he did a quality job. He threw a lot of pitches early but didn’t allow any hard back-to-back hits. We definitely needed that.”
Birdwell (1-2) lowered his ERA to 2.29
The Vanguard stalwart was aided by some early offense from the Pirates as they seemed to provide the only lightning on a cloudy night.
In the bottom of the second inning Trent Johnson (University of Utah) led off with a single and two batters later came around to score on a Nate Roberts (Seattle University) single for a 1-0 lead.
After a Tylor Pavel (Wenatchee Valley College) fly out, Roberts came home on a Bobby Lewis (Creighton University) single and the Pirates had the 2-0 advantage.
“I think it was real big getting the early lead,” Keller said. “First couple games we were chasing. The lead allowed our guys to be that much more confident and not have to play make up.”
Two innings later, the Pirates answered a Kitsap (11-7) run in the top of the third inning, when Joe Huwer (Wenatchee Valley College) singled to lead off the frame, advanced on a Roberts sacrifice bunt and then came in for the team’s third run on a Lewis single that was played just within the outfield grass and too deep for a throw home or to first.
“It was just huge to play baseball on top the whole game and have that confidence,” Keller said. “It was a well-played baseball game. You have to take advantage of what you have. We just played good baseball.”
Moses Lake added a run against the BlueJackets (11-7) in their half of the seventh when Andrew Rodriguez (San Jose State University) tripled and came home on an Austin Shackelford (University of Utah) single to finish the scoring.
Yardley then battened down the hatches with 3.2 innings of scoreless relief pitching to earn the save.
“Yardley was awesome and we found the right time to bring him in,” Keller said. “At the end of the first half of the season and play with that much confidence and have a solid outcome in winning a series it just helps the confidence and maturity of the team. To get two out of three against Kitsap is huge.”
Duncan Blades (Salt Lake CC) went 3-for-4 and Lewis finished 2-for-3 to lead the offensive attack.
Next the Pirates hit the road for their longest away trip to date with six games away from Larson Field.
Over this weekend they play three at Walla Walla, starting tonight at 7:05 p.m. and then they travel to Cowlitz for a three-game set starting on Monday.
Both teams are in the bottom of their respective East and West Divisions.
“The mindset is to play at 0-0 of every inning of every game and play the game in front of us and control what we can,” Keller said. “It’s the input and not the outcome you worry about. Playing today’s game is going to be the biggest game for us. Hopefully we can make some noise on this trip but we will see in six days. It’s more about the preparation for today. That’s my mentality.”
Thanks to a Corvallis sweep this week over the defending WCL champions, Wenatchee, Moses Lake is now four games back of the defending Apple Sox in the East Division and currently hold its second playoff spot.