Selah hands Ephrata first CWAC loss, 18-4

EPHRATA — Baseball’s a numbers game and they all stacked up against the Ephrata Tigers in Tuesday night’s 18-4 CWAC loss to Selah.

The Vikings (4-2, 4-1 CWAC) scored 18 runs on 11 hits, but the big number for the night was nine Tiger errors.

“This one of the worst defensive performances I’ve seen in Ephrata baseball history,” Tigers coach Jason Laugen said. “We were riding a 5-0 record against teams that weren’t very good and we came across a team that was. We didn’t perform.”

Ephrata committed four errors in the third inning and it spiraled into a 9-2 deficit. To their credit, they did manage to score a couple in the bottom half of the third when Parker Ball drew a lead-off walk and scored on an RBI double by Cole Spencer. Spencer scored on a throwing error, but that was the extent of the Tigers (5-1, 4-1 CWAC) offense.

“Last time we faced Cort Dietrich he no-hit us. We had three hits off him tonight and scored four runs. He was uncharacteristically wild today,” Laugen said. “He’s hittable, but the way we played defense didn’t give us a chance.”

Selah scored five more runs in the fourth with four consecutive hits in one of the few innings Ephrata did not make an error. Dietrich finished up with four strikeouts, three walks and scattered three hits in four innings of work.

“We don’t make nine errors in the game, we’re down 6-4 going into the top of the sixth. We just need to put this past us and get going,” Laugen said. “We’re at Ellensburg this weekend and Ellensburg beat these guys once.”

CWAC-leading East Valley beat Othello 6-4 to move to 5-0 in the league going into the weekend. Ellensburg (5-1) beat Grandview and Ephrata dropped into a tie with Selah at 4-1 with the league loss. So things start to shake out in a hurry from here on out.

“I still consider us one of the top four teams in the league. We just need to get past this and get back to playing the way I know we can,” Laugen said. Ephrata is at Ellensburg on Saturday for a twin bill then hosts North Mason on April 5.

Score by innings

Selah 0 4 5 5 4 - 18 11 2

Ephrata 0 2 2 0 0 - 4 3 9

Hits: Cole Spencer, double