Othello baseball team sweeps Grandview to stay in CWAC hunt
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldOthello shorstop Camron Valdez handles a routine pop-up to the infield during the late game of Friday's doubleheader with Grandview. The Huskies swept the Greyhounds to remain in the CWAC hunt.
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldOthello left fielder AJ Pruneda is all smiles after scoring in the third inning of the late game against Grandview on Friday.
OTHELLO — With East Valley clinging to a one-game lead in the CWAC standings and three teams chasing hard just one game back, the Othello Huskies can ill afford to lose at home.
The Huskies (5-2, 3-2 CWAC) took care of the ball and strung together some timely hits to sweep Grandview on Friday with a 5-0 win in the opener and 9-5 in the late game. T.J. Martinez was a triple shy of the cycle in the first game, including a two-run home run in the fifth inning.
Second-game starter Jon Garza helped himself at the plate, going 3-for-3 hitting out of the No. 9 hole in the late game. E.J. Valdez was 2-3 with a double. A.J. Pruneda (2-3) almost joined Martinez on the home run circuit, driving a towering ball to left field that dropped five feet short of going over the fence.
“Two words,” Martinez chided when he got back to the dugout after scoring in the third. “Weight room.”
Josh Garza also had a double in the second game and the Huskies stayed within reach of Ellensburg, Ephrata and Selah for second place in the CWAC standings.
On the defensive side, Othello staters Abel Gomez and Jon Garza both pitched into the sixth inning. Reliever Sakiel Garza threw just 10 pitches in the seventh inning to slam the door in the first game. Arcenio Martinez had a solid inning, eventually shutting down the Greyhounds (1-6, 0-5 CWAC), who scored four in the top half of the seventh inning in the late game.
“We had a couple of big hits by T.J. Martinez at the plate today. Defensively, we made plays. We were able to get outs when we needed them,” said first-year Husky head coach Sonny Garza. “We feel pretty good about this week, 2-1 is a good week for us. Obviously you want to get them all, but you just have to get both games at home and steal one on the road.”
The defensive play of the day, couple actually, came from the kid in right field. Husky freshman Jaxon Rocha twice threw a runner out at first base after it slipped through the right side of the infield for a base hit. The Husky speedster with a big arm charged hard, fielded the ball and put it on a rope to T.J. Martinez at first to keep the Greyhounds off the bases after they singled.
The infield was sound, the pitching was solid and the Huskies twice stole third base with aggressive base running.
“As an infield we have to help our pitchers out because they’re not going to strike many out or blow pitches by them,” said Valdez. “When the ball is put in play we have to make sure we’re getting the outs and not giving them base runners with errors.”