Boyd, Raymond lead Chiefs to 14th straight win

MOSES LAKE - With the go-ahead run at the plate Moses Lake pitcher Hunter Boyd had just balked to advance Eastmont runners to second and third base.

No worries.

With two outs, Boyd calmly induced a ground ball to shortstop Brett Moser who tossed the ball to first.

Improving the team's mental makeup is something head coach Quintz Whitaker and his staff has been working on all season.

"Visualizing, been there before," head coach Quint Whitaker said. "We practice with situations to try and get these guys mentally to work on their breath and to gather themselves and just go back to bullpen or go to hitting in the cage or whatever it is, you know, where there's a place where the, so to speak, stress isn't there."

Boyd pounded the strike zone, recording 19 first-pitch strikes and fanning six batters.

Tuesday's 3-1 win against Eastmont marked the Chiefs' 14th straight victory. Moses Lake (10-0, 14-1) now holds a two-game cushion over the Wildcats for first place in the Columbia Basin Big Nine.

Entering Tuesday, Moses Lake had averaged an even 10 runs per game during league play. However, Whitaker knew offense wouldn't come easy against the second place Wildcats.

"Playoff games or games of playoff magnitude, a playoff feel, whatever you want to think of, I mean, are always going to be low scoring games and against a team like Eastmont, a good ball club ... We know that they're going to be low scoring games when we play good competition," he said. "I was proud of the way the guys did. Pitching and defense is what keeps you in games in all places and Brett did have some phenomenal plays and definitely was the captain of the defense out there and that's what we want out of the shortstop so it was good to see."

Although the Chiefs committed two errors, the team played solid defense behind Boyd. The infield gobbled up ground balls while the outfield made sure any routine fly ball caused no trouble.

Moser made a pair of highlight reel plays in the second inning with a diving stop and putout to notch the first out. The senior shortstop ended the second after catching a screaming line drive.

Moses Lake was able to take an early lead after Cole Raymond smashed a two-run double in the third inning.

Timely hitting has been key for Moses Lake during this remarkable stretch.

"One of the things that we stress with them in practice is just keeping your head," Whitaker said. "It's not about going up and getting a hit every time ... Sometimes you get beat even and maybe don't feel good mentally about an at bat, but you just got to battle. Baseball's that way. You're not going to have success most of the time. It's actually going to be a game of failure so to go up there and keep your head and just know that there's another at bat coming for you. You just got to be ready for it when it shows up."

Raymond finished 1 for 3 with one RBI. Jaime Vela was 2 for 2 with two singles.

Moses Lake was able to notch one more insurance run in the sixth inning when Ryan Pena scored on a balk by Eastmont's Jacob Crone.

The Chiefs will travel to East Wenatchee to close the series against the Wildcats Friday.

Despite having not lost for almost six weeks, Moses Lake will look at this final stretch of games from an 0-0 perspective.

"The boys and me we talked about breaking the games into five-game seasons and it's interesting that after today this was the fifth game of our thing so our focus actually went back to starting as 0-0," Whitaker said. "And yes I realize where you're coming from, but I've told these guys I said, 'You're only as good as your next game.' And that's the same mentality when a streak gets broken you have to know there's a next game."