The Bells don't toll: Pirates clip Bellingham
Moses Lake Pirates starting pitcher Nathan Johnson wheels and deals last night in his team's opener against the Bellingham Bells at Larson Field. Johnson pitched seven innings and struck out eight while his Pirates team pulled out a key 6-4 win over the Bells in front of 651 fans.
PIRATES 6
Bells 4
MOSES LAKE — They needed to recapture the form that had put them in the West Coast League (WCL) playoff hunt.
After dropping three straight at Corvallis over the weekend, the Moses Lake Pirates did just that in playing host to the Bellingham Bells last night at Larson Field.
Moses Lake, behind three pivotal innings, defeated the Bells 6-4 to open the three-game set.
Moses Lake (21-22 overall and 17-20 in WCL) moved a game ahead of Kelowna for the second and final playoff spot out of the East Division.
Wenatchee, the East leaders, won again to inch closer to the division title and reduce their magic number to five.
The Pirates scored deuces in the third, fifth, and seventh innings, with all outputs coming in response to the Bells.
Trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the third, Moses Lake scored their first two runs on just one hit but were helped by three of Bellingham’s five errors in the game.
Austin Shackelford (University of Utah) reached on an error and Duncan Blades (Salt Lake CC) followed that up with a single to put both runners on with one out.
Then Nick Frederick (Pomona College) came up to bat and found a way on base with a Bellingham error by the Bells’ second baseman as both Shackelford and Blades came around to score for a 2-1 Pirates lead.
Bellingham would score one run in each of their next two at-bats to lead 3-2 before once again Moses Lake would respond.
Again multiple Bellingham errors and just one hit was enough for the Pirates to take the lead.
Michael Bush (Lewis and Clark College) singled with one out and that was followed by a walk to Nate Roberts (Seattle University).
Then errors by both the Bellingham pitcher and shortstop on Tylor Pavel’s (Wenatchee Valley College) at bat allowed by Bush to score and the game was tied at 3-3.
Roberts would score on a Josh Rapacz (George Fox University) ground out and the Pirates were back on top.
Once more Bellingham would throw a counter punch, tying the game in the top of the seventh inning before the hosts scored again in the bottom half of the frame.
Bush doubled and Frederick, Roberts, and Rapacz all singled to help produce the Moses Lake 6-4 lead.
Bush led the Pirates’ offense with two hits.
Nathan Johnson (Whitworth University) pitched seven innings, scattering six hits, while striking out eight to record the win.
Eastern New Mexico University’s Tony Smith pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth inning to back up Johnson and record the save.
The two teams hook up again tonight at Larson Field with the first pitch scheduled for 7:35 p.m.
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