Moses Lake clawed by 'Cats
MOSES LAKE - Mt. Spokane had been threatening to score for a majority of the game.
But timely pitching and sound defense from Moses Lake had kept the Wildcats off the board, despite leaving runners on base in the first four innings.
"We've got good pitching so I mean I know we can come out and get outs when we need to," head coach Quintz Whitaker. "Hunter looked good he just had to wiggle through that and kind of find a rhythm and get started. They're a good squad, I think we knew they were going to play well."
The Chiefs held a 2-0 lead entering the fifth inning until Mt. Spokane stormed back with four runs punctuated by back-to-back doubles.
The Wildcats tacked on three more runs and the Chiefs fell, 7-2.
Hunter Boyd was solid in three innings of work, allowing no runs with one strikeout. Boyd was pulled before the fourth inning to keep his pitch count down in the relatively young season.
"We don't need everything come April right now," Whitaker said. "We're building towards the end of the season so we're just bringing them along slow."
After a scoreless first inning, Moses Lake was able to plate two runners in the bottom of the second.
Tyson Karstetter was able to score on a throwing error and Ryan Pena powered an RBI single later in the frame.
Moses Lake was able to elevate the opposing starter's pitch count in the second inning and, with the top of the order coming to the plate in the third, had an opportunity to pad its lead.
The Chiefs were unable to rally.
"Our base running cost us a couple runs and I think that was one of the flaws that we had today was we did have some opportunities and some chances where we probably should've been able to score a few more runs, but a couple base running mistakes cost us and put us in a bad spot," Whitaker said.
Whitaker felt the team was solid on defense for most of the game, but noted the compacted schedule has made it difficult to work on communication.
"I thought we were better defensively," he said. "I think our communication's coming around so that's one thing we really stressed in practice yesterday was only having the one practice between the first game and the jamboree we've made communication kind of a focus and overall they did do better."
Moses Lake is on the road Saturday for a nonleague game against Mead.