Walleyes drop three games to Bandits
A Kennewick Junior Bandit gets caught in a pickle between the Walleyes Mason Mathews and Kevin Cosper in the first game of a doubleheader Friday at Larson Field. Jaime Vela, far left, backs up the play. Kennewick beat Moses Lake 8-1.
Nathan Ball hits a triple in the bottom of the seventh inning to knock in the only run of the game for the Walleyes in the first game of the twin bill.
MOSES LAKE - The Walleyes dropped three nonleague games to the Kennewick Junior Bandits over the weekend. Moses Lake lost both games of a doubleheader at home Friday, (8-1, 2-1), then were turned back 2-1 in single game action in Kennewick Saturday.
Bandits 8
Walleyes 1
Kennewick dominated the first game of the twin bill as the visiting team took an 8-0 score into the bottom of the seventh inning. The Bandits put one run on the board in the top of the first, one in the second, four in the third, and one in the sixth and seventh inning.
The Walleyes avoided the shutout on a two-out triple by Nathan Ball, scoring Carson Fisk who reached base on a walk and stole second prior to the three-bagger by Ball.
Ball led the offensive attack for Moses Lake, going one-for-one at the plate with a triple and an RBI. Fisk had one hit in two at bats with a run scored, and Derek Crum finished with one hit in three plate appearances with a double.
Jared Haddican gave up seven runs off five hits, and walked five Bandits in five and a third innings of work, and was tagged with the loss for the Walleyes. Ball gave up one run off two hits in an inning and a third of relief.
Bandits 2
Walleyes 1
Baseball purists favor a low scoring ball game. And that's precisely what fans were treated to in the second game of the doubleheader.
Unfortunately, all the scoring action took place in the first inning of play, and Moses Lake was on the short end of the tally.
Blake Springer accounted for two of the six Walleye hits. Jaime Vela, Derek Crum, Carson Fisk and Kevin Cosper had one hit each. Cosper had the lone RBI for Moses Lake.
Springer went the distance on the bump, giving up two runs off five hits, while walking four Bandits in the loss.
Bandits 8
Walleyes 6
Moses Lake hit the pavement to Kennewick Saturday looking to salvage one of three games against the Bandits. The team nearly pulled out a come-from-behind win, but fell three runs shy of picking up a victory.
Kennewick got on the board first with five runs in the bottom of the second inning.
The Walleyes got a run back in the top of the third to close the gap to 5-1. A run in the bottom of the fourth and fifth inning pushed the Bandits lead to 7-1.
Down six runs, but not out of the game by any means, Moses Lake rang up three in the top of the sixth to make a game of it, 7-4. Kennewick answered back with a run in the bottom of the seventh to go up 8-4.
The Walleyes threatened to get back in it with two runs in the top of the eighth, but were held of the board in the teams' last at bat, and dropped the game, 8-6.
Moses Lake ends regular season play with a league doubleheader on the road at Yakima Valley today, and a single game with Yakima Valley at home Tuesday at 5 p.m.
The district tournament gets underway Friday.