Pitching staff, timely hits help Central Washington outlast CdA

MOSES LAKE — Cameron Duke hadn’t pitched since he was “like 14,” but that didn’t stop the left-hander from contributing two innings of relief.

Cain Valdez, Duke and Cade Tunstall came out of Central Washington’s bullpen to pitch six innings, allowing just three runs in the process. The combined effort coupled with big days at the plate from Duke, Nate Ball and Bailey Sanchez helped Central Washington outlast Coeur d’Alene in nine innings on a sweltering day.

“It’s just willingness to play,” head coach Jameson Lange said. “It’s a scrappy group of kids that love to play the game and that’s the one thing that we talked about this summer is that we’re going to out-hustle people, we’re going to out-focus people and play the game better longer. And that’s what we’ve got do to whether it’s 102 or it’s 36 degrees, we’ve just got to keep the focus and keep playing all night.”

Tyson Yamane — new to the Spuds and the Pitcher of the Year in the Central Washington 2B South from Warden — started the game and was in trouble early, walking in a run after loading the bases. However, Yamane was able to induce a double play to keep the damage at a minimum.

Levi Garrison doubled to start the second inning and later scored on a Tunstall single, tying the game. CdA answered with a two-run double in the third to retake the lead 3-1.

Valdez entered the game in the fourth inning, the beginning of three straight scoreless innings .

“This is my first time playing with Tyson and he is a great competitor,” Duke said. “He did a great job going out on the mound today. Cain threw strikes for us and Cade shut it down.”

Ball — who recently wrapped up his first season at Big Bend — found some grass on a two-run bloop single in the fifth inning to tie the game again. A RBI single by Brandon Swett gave Central Washington the lead 4-3.

Duke singled and scored on a balk in the seventh to give the Spud a two-run cushion. But Coeur d’Alene came back in the eighth to score two runs on a pair of RBI singles to tie the game for the third time.

The scrappy Spuds answered in the home half when Tunstall reached on an error and was later drive in by Duke.

“Today at the plate I just wanted to stay calm, drive the ball to the center of the field and got a little ahead of it on a few and pulled it,” said Duke, who scored twice and had one RBI. “But you do what you can.”

Ball notched a pair of insurance runs with a two-run single to right field.

“We expect a lot out of him (Ball),” Lange said. “Talked about just having him enjoy the game this summer and have fun and not try to do too much and I thought he did a great job with it.”

Tunstall picked up the save, striking out two batters in the ninth inning.

After three ties, Duke — who drove in the go-ahead run — was happy to avoid extra innings on a hot day.

“No, I was not feeling that at all,” he said. “Did not want to do that.”