Walleyes win one, lose two

YAKIMA - The Walleyes hit the road to Yakima Tuesday for a doubleheader and came away with a split with the Junior Beetles.

Moses Lake dropped the first game 7-5, but came back to take the night cap, 8-3.

"It was a close first ball game as both teams battled it out," coach Quintz Whitaker said. "Kevin Coster pitched well for us in the second game ... threw a lot of strikes and gave us a big lift."

Beetles 7

Walleyes 5

The Walleyes looked to be in control of the first game of the twin bill as they jumped out to a 5-1 lead after three and a half innings of play. But Yakima hung two runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings to knot things up, then scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to complete the come-from-behind win, 7-5.

The Junior Beetles out hit Moses Lake 12-7 in the contest.

Nathan Ball had the hot stick for the Walleyes going two-for-two with a double and two runs scored. Tyson Karstetter had two hits in four at bats with a double, a run scored and one RBI, and Kevin Cosper finished with one hit in three plate appearances with two RBI.

Hunter Boyd went the distance on the bump for Moses Lake, allowing seven runs off 12 hits, while fanning five.

Walleyes 8

Beetles 3

Tyson Karstetter and Ryan Pena had two hits each with two triples and five RBI between them to lead to Walleyes to an 8-3 win in the nightcap and give Moses Lake a hard earned split of the twin bill.

The game was scoreless until the Walleyes brought four runs across the plate in the top of the fourth inning. Yakima got a run back in the bottom of the frame to tighten things up, 4-1. Moses Lake added four runs in the top of the sixth to push its lead to 8-1. The Junior Beetles failed to score in the bottom of the inning, but tacked on two runs to their tally in the bottom of the seventh to round out the scoring for the contest, 8-3.

Kevin Cosper threw six innings of four-hit ball, while surrendering just one run to record the win. Carson Fisk gave up two runs off one hit in one inning of relief.

The spit with Yakima runs the Walleyes league record to 9-6 in league play and cements down third place in the standings. The team has qualified for postseason play with three games left in the season. The district playoffs get underway July 19.

The Walleyes dropped a single game to the Junior Beetles, 20-11 at home Wednesday,

The team is back in action this afternoon when they host a nonleague doubleheader with the Kennewick Bandits. The first pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. The Walleyes hit the road for a single game against the Bandits Saturday at 1 p.m. They finish out the season with a doubleheader at Yakima Valley Monday, and single game against Yakima Valley at home Tuesday.