Moses Lake drops two non-league games

MOSES LAKE — Summers spent on the Moses Lake Walleyes or Central Washington Spuds don’t quite compare to high school varsity.

Young, inexperienced Moses Lake came to that realization, starting its season with non-league losses to Graham-Kapowsin 13-5 and Woodinville 5-0.

“A lot of guys are seeing varsity pitching for the first time so that’s another first for a lot of our younger kids, too,” senior Jason Cole said.

The pitching improved against the Falcons, however, the hitting regressed.

Woodinville lefty Tanner Simon pitched five shutout innings and gave up one hit. Cody Goodwin recorded the lone knock for the Chiefs, a one-out single in the fourth inning.

Reese Averill and Drew Barlow completed the shutout for the Falcons, working one inning each.

“A big thing for us right now is that our timing’s not real good,” head coach Quintz Whitaker said. “We’ve just got to get in and improve on that. Whether that means getting in and getting more swings, trying for some quantity or whatever it might be, speeding the pitching machine up. Just trying to get guys to where they’re being able to relay those game situations onto what we’re doing in practice so hopefully that’ll improve as the week goes on.”

Moses Lake starter Grant Gollehon ran into trouble in the second inning, loading the bases with no outs. A pair of bunt singles followed a lead-off walk.

But the Chiefs came within one strike from wiggling out of the jam. Gollehon induced an infield fly to first baseman Desmond Ortega and a line-out to shortstop Devin Moos. With two outs and an 0-2 count, Gollehon’s curve ball bounced past catcher Seth Alvardo, scoring Woodinville’s first run.

The Falcons put together a three-run third inning, starting with a lead-off double by Nolan McCafferty. McCafferty was drive in two batters later by Barlow, who also doubled.

An error by Moos and a RBI single Jake Tilley punctuated Woodinville’s surge.

Compounded mistakes was something Whitaker focused on before the game.

“You can’t let one thing lead to two and two things lead to three,” he said. “Trying to minimize that and there was some points that we did a pretty good job of that overall. We did minimize in some cases, but again, probably again too many little things that we didn’t do: fielding a bunt, getting runners picked off in situations where we probably don’t need to be that aggressive. Things like that are some of the growing pains that we’re going to go through as a team, but if they’re growing pains that means we’re growing.”

Austin Valdez took over for Gollehon in the fourth inning and gave up one run in three innings. Cole worked the final frame for the Chiefs.

Although Moses Lake struggled out of league, the team is eager to test its mettle against the Columbia Basin Big Nine, starting with Eisenhower on Tuesday.

“I feel confident that we can get three wins next week,” Cole said. “We just have to flush this weekend.”

Quincy swept by Ellensburg

QUINCY — Quincy opened CWAC play with two losses to Ellensburg 7-2 and 11-4.

In the opener, the Jacks trailed 4-2 before the Bulldogs plated three runs in the top of the sixth inning.

Quincy travels to Toppenish March 26.

Ephrata improves to 3-0

PROSSER — Logan Moss tossed a five-hitter in the opener and Ephrata moved to 3-0 after a sweep of Prosser.

The Tigers took the first game 12-2 and won the second 8-1.

Ephrata hosts Grandview March 26.