Bells even up series
Ball in mitt, Moses Lake Pirates first baseman Nick Frederick uses all of his effort to get out this Bellingham Bells batter in the fourth inning of last night's game between the two clubs. The visitors won a slugfest 10-7.
BELLS 10
Pirates 7
MOSES LAKE — As the Wenatchee Apple Sox begin to pull away to a West Coast League (WCL) East Division baseball title, the Moses Lake Pirates find themselves in a dog fight to capture the second and final playoff spot out of the division.
After Tuesday’s action, the Pirates moved one game ahead of charging Kelowna for that prized spot but 24 hours later the see-saw had brought things back level.
After falling behind big early on Wednesday night against the Bellingham Bells, the Pirates charged back to tie the contest before the visitors found their second win to pull away with a 10-7 win in front of 697 fans at Larson Field.
Moses Lake (21-23 overall, 17-21 in WCL) fall into a tie for second in the East with Kelowna (20-24), who holds the edge due to winning percentage.
The two teams meet next week in the Pirates’ next to last series of the season.
Wenatchee (24-14), who lead the division by seven games, saw their magic number to claim the title reduced to three.
Bellingham (20-22) came out strong in the first inning, scoring four runs and five hits as they batted through the lineup against Pirates starter Mike Garza.
They added a run in the second inning before Garza began to settle in and the Moses Lake offense decided to get even.
Joe Huwer (Wenatchee Valley College) led off the Pirates’ half of the second with a single and would eventually come home on a Bryndon Ecklund (Seattle University) ground out to make the score 5-1.
As Garza kept the Bells in check the Pirates found a way to tie the game in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Tylor Pavel (Wenatchee Valley College) walked and Nate Roberts (Seattle University) got on thanks to a Bells’ error to kick off the rally.
Ecklund would walk and then up came Andrew Rodriguez (San Jose State University).
The outfielder belted a 0-1 pitch over and out of the park for a grand slam and the game was tied at 5-5.
But Bellingham would get two more runs in the fifth to chase Garza and led 10-5 after their turn at the plate in the seventh inning,
In the bottom half of that frame, Moses Lake would nip away at the deficit when Rodriguez notched his fifth RBI of the game, by walking and bringing home Huwer who had singled earlier, making the score 10-6.
Duncan Blades (Salt Lake CC) would score in the bottom of the eighth inning on a Michael Bush (Lewis and Clark College) ground out to narrow the gap a bit more, but then the Bellingham pitchers tightened up and kept Moses Lake from doing any more damage.
Moses Lake ended up with 12 hits — three from Blades and two apiece from Austin Shackelford (University of Utah), Nick Frederick (Pomona College) and Huwer.
The Pirates were hurt by leaving 11 runners on base while Kris Carlson (Wenatchee Valley College) suffered the loss in relief.
Tonight the two teams will play for the series win with the first pitch at Larson Field scheduled for 7:35 p.m. It’s “Pink at the Park” night, sponsored by Making Memories Foundation. The Pirates organization encourages fans to cone out and support the Columbia Basin Cancer Foundation who will be on hand raising funds to help local cancer patients and their families.
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