Walleyes win two, lose two

RICHLAND - The Moses Lake Walleyes played .500 ball over the weekend, but two losses in four games put an end to their summer season. Both wins came against Kennewick teams on Thursday.

The Walleyes ended their regular summer season in a three-way tie for the eighth place and needed to win two games to qualify for the district tournament.

And Moses Lake did just that as the team turned back the Dusters 4-2 in game one, then rolled over the Bandits 12-4 to qualify as the final seed. Brett Moser was the big stick in the game for the Walleyes against the Bandits as his inside the park grand slam blew the game wide open for Moses Lake.

Moser, who is the team's starting shortstop, actually started on the mound for the Walleyes and did an admirable job for Moses Lake, as did Jacob Price who closed out both games.

"We were put in a tough spot and had to win to get in," coach Quintz Whitaker said. "It was great to see the guys come out and compete well against two quality Yakima teams."

Whitaker was told at the end of the regular season his team had qualified as the final seed, but was informed just a day or two prior to the tournament the Walleyes had actually tied with two other teams and that there would be a playoff to determine which one would actually make it to the post season.

And although it was disappointing to have to play the two extra games because it meant the team had to expound more energy than anticipated, the Walleyes gave it their best shot. Unfortunately, the team was unable to make it past the second round.

"We were really tired heading into the district tournament, but the boys never gave up," Whitaker said. "We ended up losing both our games, but I though we played pretty well considering the circumstance."

The Walleyes dropped the first game of the district tournament to Yakima Valley, 5-1 in what turned out to be a real pitching duel.

"Both teams pitchers went the distance and only threw about 80 pitches," Whitaker said. "I think the game only lasted about an hour and a half."

Moses Lake took an early 1-0 lead in the game, but Yakima answered back with four runs in the bottom of the fourth to race out front. The Walleyes were held scoreless from the third inning on. The Peppers added one more run in the bottom of the sixth to win the game.

Chase Tunstall was tagged with the loss for Moses Lake. The defeat sent the Walleyes into the consolation bracket Saturday to match up with Richland for the right to stay alive in the tournament.

But it wasn't in the cards for Moses Lake as the team suffered a gut-wrenching 8-7 loss and was bounced out of post season play.

Richland took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. The Walleyes, not to be outdone, hung four runs on the board in the top of the second to take their first lead, 4-3 in the game.

Richland tied it 4-4  with a run in the bottom of the inning. Both teams were held off the scoreboard through the next three innings until the Walleyes brought three runners across the plate in the top of the sixth.

Richland failed to score in its half of the frame and things were looking good for Moses Lake. All the team had to do was record three outs and not give up more than two runs and the game would belong to the Walleyes.  

But Richland came up with four in the bottom of the seventh for the come from behind win.

"When Nick (Bailey) doubled in a couple of runs for us in the top of the sixth to put us up by two, I thought we had a real good chance of pulling out the game," Whitaker said. "We added a third run, but we had trouble throwing strikes in the seventh inning, committed a couple of errors, and let them back in the ball game. And they ended up squeezing in the winning run to beat us."

Moses Lake out hit Richland 14 to nine, but had three errors to Richland's one and that was really the difference in the game.

Whitaker and the team was obviously disappointed in the loss as it meant the season had come to an end.

"We would've loved to be playing a couple more games, but it didn't work out that way," he said. "But, overall, I thought the team had a successful season. This was a fun group of kids to coach. They played hard and were very selfless. They just wanted to win games and weren't concerned with their stats. I hope they learned a few things along the way that will make them better ball players when the season gets underway at the high school next spring."