Walleyes roll past Eastmont

EAST WENATCHEE - Hunter Boyd went two-for-three at the plate with a double, two runs scored, and five RBI to lead the Walleyes to a lopsided 19-4 road win over Eastmont Tuesday.

The victory was the teams' third win in as many games as the Walleyes swept a doubleheader over Eastmont at home Monday night.

"We really got after it with our bats in this one," coach Quintz Whitaker said. "Our pitcher threw well as Eastmont ... which is a young team struggled a bit at the plate."

The Walleyes got things going early with three runs in the top of the first inning of play. Eastmont received an early blow as their starting pitcher was knocked out of the game after taking a line drive off his collarbone on a ball hit by Spencer Vela.

But the team showed grit and answered back with three in the bottom of the frame to level the playing field, 3-3. A 10-run second inning blew the game wide open for the Walleyes as they sent 15 batters to the plate and raced out to a 13-3 lead.

Jared Haddican led off the inning with a walk. Back-to-back singles by Jaime and Spencer Vela brought Haddican around to score the go ahead run to put the Walleyes up 4-3. Tyson Karstetter reached first on an error by the Eastmont shortstop to juice the bases.

A three-run double by Boyd to center field cleared the bags to push the lead to 7-3. The Walleyes added three more runs in the inning and the rout was on, 13-3.

Eastmont got one back in the bottom of the fourth, but that was all the runs the team could muster. The Walleyes posted four runs on the board in the top of the fourth, and added two in the top of the sixth to round out the scoring for the game, 19-4.

Karstetter picked up the win on the hill. The Walleyes out hit Eastmont 17-6. The win over Eastmont improved the Walleyes to 8-4 in league play and into a two-way tie for second place in the standings with the Yakima Junior Beetles.

The team is out of action until Wednesday when the Walleyes hit the road for a doubleheader in Yakima. The Walleyes have six league and three nonleague games left in the regular season. The district playoffs get underway July 19.

"We need to finish in the top four of the league to qualify for the postseason," Whitaker said. "Yakima Valley is currently in first place at 11-0. We'd like to nail down second place to get a better draw in the district tournament."

The Walleyes can do just that if they take two-out-of-three games against the Junior Beetles next week.