Big bats lead Davis over Moses Lake
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake catcher Cody Goodwin just misses tagging out Davis' Henry Gargus at the plate.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Austin Valdez delivers to the plate against Davis.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake's Kameron Huberdeau (right) slides into second base safely.
MOSES LAKE — Austin Valdez and the defense behind him breezed through the first three innings.
It was the second and third time through the Davis lineup where problems began.
Henry Gargus tripled twice, drove in two runs, scored twice and Davis rallied to beat Moses Lake 6-2.
“Defensively, we had a couple balls that necessarily didn’t bounce our way and then we kind of let those things have an effect on us,” head coach Quintz Whitaker said. “Baseball’s got a funny way of sometimes evening things out and I think we just kind of lost our composure a little bit and once they did that they were able to strike and capitalize in those situations.”
Gargus led off the fourth inning with a triple to deep right field. Isaac Pastrana followed with a hard hit chopper back to Valdez and Gargus beat the throw home to tie the game, 1-1.
The bad breaks continued when Kobe Kupp legged out a bunt single. Later in the frame, a throwing error down to third base allowed Pastrana to score. Kupp bowled over catcher Cody Goodwin on a sacrifice fly ball to center field, stretching Davis’ lead to 3-1.
Davis tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning behind another Gargus triple. This time Gargus’s deep shot drove in a pair of runs. A fielder’s choice allowed Gargus to trot home for Davis’ sixth run.
“He’s (Gargus) quite the hitter,” Whitaker said.
Moses Lake (3-4, 3-6) scattered hits throughout the early innings, but never strung together a sustained rally. Courtesy runner Bailey Sanchez went from first base to home plate after a throwing error in the second inning.
However, Davis (3-7, 3-9) starter Brock Williams responded by retiring Moses Lake in order in three out of the next four innings.
“We got a few here and there to make things move a little bit, but you’ve got to be able to cash in on more of those situations to keep them from answering,” Whitaker said. “Once they got three (runs) that was kind of an answer that we never rallied back from.”
Zach Valdez smacked an RBI single in the seventh inning to make the margin a little closer.
Davis entered the game in last place in the Columbia Basin Big Nine, but that record was a bit deceiving as three out of its first five opponents reached the Class 3A or 4A state tournament in 2016.
Moses Lake travels to finish the season series in Yakima on Friday.
A doubleheader sweep would keep Moses Lake in third place and move its league record above .500.
“We need to make sure we’re getting two out of three,” Whitaker said. “That’s kind of the standard that we set.”
Box score
D — 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 6
ML — 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2
Highlights: Sanchez 1 run, Zach Valdez 1 RBI