Pirates lose final game against visiting Knights

MOSES LAKE — Two outs away from a series win on Wednesday night, the Moses Lake Pirates would end up dropping their second straight game to visiting Corvallis 24 hours later at Larson Field.

Behind the strong start of Kyle Kraus — eight shutout innings, allowing seven hits, and striking out six — the Knights, who pulled out a last inning escape the previous evening, finished off a 4-0 win on Thursday in front of a season-high 1,141 fans at Larson.

Kraus lowered his ERA to 0.82 against the Pirates (5-10 overall, 4-8 in West Coast League play), who saw their recently hot bats cooled exponentially in the series finale with the Knights (6-7).

“I thought he did well even though we did hit him hard,” Pirates head coach Steve Keller said. “What he did well is not allow back-to-back hits. We have been seeing some good pitching and he made good pitches. He’s got a great approach and was able to apply it to success.”

Corvallis got on the board in the first inning with two runs off of Moses Lake starter Scott Birdwell (Vanguard University), who struggled with his control during his 5.1 innings of work.

“Scott made good pitches and was able to get into the moment but it was after the fact and that’s hard to do,” Keller said. “I told the guys that in this league you have to be dialed in from pitch one and if you’re not you have to play make up. He threw well but we were always chasing since he gave up his runs early in the innings.”

Birdwell still managed to get out of bases-full jams in the second inning (giving up no runs) and the third inning (allowing one run) to keep the game close.

Birdwell ended up putting five runners on base with walks and allowed four hits as his ERA bumped up to 2.51.

Overall Corvallis recorded eight total hits throughout the game against Birdwell and relievers Eric Yardley (Seattle University) — 2.1 IP, one earned run and three hits allowed — and Tony Smith (Eastern New Mexico) — 1.1 IP, one hit allowed.

It was a much improved performance from the bullpen after they struggled to hold a late 4-2 lead the previous evening in the Knights’ 7-4 win.

“The bullpen was great,” Keller said. “Last night they didn’t have it but tonight they were as prepared as they could have been. Eric did a good job for us and kept us in a three-run ball game where games can change real quick.”

Offensively the Pirates did put seven hits into play and were led by Joe Huwer (Wenatchee Valley College) who recorded two hits while Nate Roberts (Seattle University), Nick Frederick (Pomona College), Trent Johnson (University of Utah), Bryndon Ecklund (Seattle University), and Andrew Rodriguez (San Jose State University) all each had one hit.

The Pirates hit the road today and begin a three-game series at Bellingham to take on the host Bells (9-8) with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch this evening.

Moses Lake returns for a three-game set with the Kitsap Blue Jackets (7-4) on Tuesday at Larson Field.

NOTES: The Pirates are now 4-8 at home on the season. They have won one of their first four series at Larson Field, but have not captured one since their opening three games against the Kelowna Falcons of whom Moses Lake took two-out-of-three games...Starting for the Pirates tonight will be Jordan Whitman (Cal Poly-Pomona) while Smith is scheduled to be on the bump in Saturday’s ball game. Sunday’s starter for a 2:05 p.m. first pitch, according to Keller, will be, Tyler Drussel (Big Bend CC)...Despite the recent batting surge, the Pirates are still only in 8th place in the WCL in hitting with a .219 team average. They are led by Duncan Blades (Salt Lake CC) (.421) who is second in the league in batting average. Frederick is the next best hitter on the squad with a .298 batting average...The Pirates are now the only team in the WCL without a home run on the season...Moses Lake has scored 43 runs in 12 WCL games to bump their average up to 3.6 per game...Once leading the league in pitching, the Pirates are now fifth in the WCL in team ERA (3.76). They have recorded the second lowest number of strikeouts (64), while allowing the third least number of walks (49). Drew Martin (Moses Lake HS) is 2-1 with a team-leading 1.17 ERA.