Third attempt for three is the charm in Pirates win
The Moses Lake Pirates players have watched intensely as their team continues to improve this season. The Pirates won their third straight game and all on the road last night in Longview during their 10-5 win at Cowlitz Black Bears. Moses Lake is now two games out of first place in the East Divsion behind the defending league champion Wenatchee Apple Sox, whom they will see next week in a three-game series.
PIRATES 10
Black Bears 5
LONGVIEW — It took three attempts but the Moses Lake Pirates finally got their first three-game winning streak of the 2010 season as they came-from-behind in a 10-5 win against the Cowlitz Black Bears in West Coast League (WCL) action on Tuesday night.
With the win the Pirates (12-14 overall and 11-12 in WCL play) have crept within two games of the East Division league leaders Wenatchee Apple Sox who were idle last night.
The win over Cowlitz (5-13) was not only their third straight win but also secured their third successive series win.
“I didn’t even pay attention to the fact we won three games in a row but I did not know that we had won three series in a row and that’s a bigger staple in baseball,” Moses Lake head coach Steve Keller said. “It’s nice to see these guys get more confidence every game and it’s nice to see them play and I am excited to see them play.”
The Pirates got on the board in the top of the first inning when Austin Shackelford (University of Utah) led off with a double and one out later scored when Nick Frederick (Pomona College) hit the team’s first home run of the season to make the score 2-0.
Moses Lake was the last team in the league to hit a home run this season.
Cowlitz took the lead back with three-run first inning off of Pirates’ starter Scott Birdwell (Vanguard University).
Pirates’ bats wouldn’t allow the Cowlitz team to pull away when they tied the game in the top half of the second after Kris Carlson (Wenatchee Valley College) reached base on an error and would eventually come home on a Shackelford sacrifice fly to make it 3-3.
In the top of the third inning, Moses Lake took a 4-3 lead when Trent Johnson (University of Utah) doubled with one out and scored on a Nate Roberts (Seattle University) two-bagger.
Cowlitz regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning with two runs off of Birdwell and Keller put in Mike Garza (Columbia Basin College/Othello High School) and things began to settle down.
Eventually the Moses Lake offense got really cracking — ending with 11 hits — in the top of the seventh inning.
Michael Bush (San Jose State University) walked with one out and advanced to second as Frederick got on after a Cowlitz error.
Johnson singled to load the bases and Roberts would single in both Bush and Frederick for a 6-5 Moses Lake lead.
In the Pirates’ half of the eighth inning, they scored once more when Bryndon Ecklund (Seattle University) tripled and came home on an Andrew Rodriguez (San Jose State University) single and the lead was 7-5.
The game was put out of reach in the top of the ninth as Moses Lake scored three more times.
Johnson doubled, Roberts got on base via another Cowlitz error, and Carlson would ground out, bringing in Johnson for an 8-5 Moses Lake lead.
Roberts came around to score on an Ecklund double and would himself come home on a Rodriguez double to wrap up the scoring.
Tony Smith (Eastern New Mexico University) pitched the last two innings to record the save as Garza earned the win just 10 days after being added to the Pirates’ roster.
“It was a good win and it feels good,” Keller said. “We’ll take it 2-1 or 10-5. The game of baseball is making the least amount of mistakes and controlling what you can. We made good plays they made good plays and our guys did what they needed to do with that one good pitch they got in each bat. Our guys played hard to tonight.”
Tomorrow Jordan Whitman (Cal Poly Pomona) takes the mound in hopes of helping the Pirates to their first season sweep of the season as the first half of WCL play comes to a close.
They also have already ensured a winning road trip — 4-1 — with this final game left to play.
“We didn’t do this last summer but I don’t try to stray from our game in front of us,” Keller said. “I feel the momentum is huge but we have a day off tomorrow and then three non-league games before we go to Wenatchee. We need to keep doing what we can and not get ahead of ourselves.”
One thing that could help carry the team’s current strong play — 8-6 over last 14 games — is the mental makeup and camaraderie within the roster.
“They like to work and they like to see good baseball and they reward it with the camaraderie,” Keller said. “Even in the bad situations or bad outcomes they bring more to each other with subtle little baseball teams. It’s their approach to coming to the yard. They work on their plan and see how it works into a baseball game. Ultimately they are competitors and they compete all the time.”
He also hopes their even keel approach continue to pay dividends.
“They have a calm disposition,” Keller said. “As a coach and a hustle player I played with a lot of emotion and these guys are more a calm, cool, nature. They play with emotion but they don’t show it. Baseball just like life is a game of emotions and there are ups and downs. The human reaction to adversity or excitement is down or up and then back to ground zero and these guys seem to just take care of their business and that they have an even-keel approach.”