Vance Alvarado throws 3 perfect innings; Moses Lake routs Sunnyside

MOSES LAKE — Sometimes a team needs a spark.

Moses Lake starter Vance Alvarado breezed through the bottom of Sunnyside’s order with consecutive strikeouts. That quick turnaround helped the Moses Lake batters move past a scoreless second inning into a six-run third inning, which keyed a 12-0 blowout win.

“People don’t realize that six of our starters were playing either freshmen or JV baseball last year, they weren’t varsity kids,” head coach Donnie Lindgren said. “To come out, we’re over halfway through the season and our young kids are really clutching up at times.

“We’ve got two sophomores that are playing lights out for us, our juniors are taking care of business and our seniors are leading by example.”

Moses Lake (8-2, 10-2) jumped on Sunnyside from the get-go.

In the first inning, Zack Valdez drew a lead-off walk and then came all the way around to score on a wild pitch. Cody Goodwin followed with an RBI single.

The early lead was more than enough for Alvarado.

Alvarado was able to remain in command despite a severe crosswind, striking out six batters in three innings. Sunnyside did not have a base runner until the fourth inning and only managed one hit by Isaac Briones.

With the game in hand, Ezekyel Ochoa entered to pitch two innings of scoreless relief.

“He’s (Alvarado) our guy,” Lindgren said. “Our other pitchers are right there too, but Vance brings a businessman attitude all the time and a lot of people would have been probably pretty upset getting pulled out with a perfect game going and he had perfect game through six (innings) against Eastmont and lost it on an error and then a base hit, so it doesn’t concern him.

“He just goes about and just works his tail off and he’s all about team. It was a hard call to bring him out with a perfect game going, but our ultimate goal isn’t all-league or anything else like that.”

Moses Lake did the majority of its damage in the third inning.

After loading the bases with no outs, Austin Valdez was able to drive a ball through the wind into left field for a two-run single.

“I just did what I know how to do — put a good swing on the ball,” he said. “He was throwing up in the zone, so I knew I was going to have to get on top of it to hit a line drive because nothing was going in the air today. I just tried to put a good swing on it.”

Gabe Passey also drove an RBI triple into the right-center gap and hit another RBI single in the fourth inning.

The win moved Moses Lake into second place in the Columbia Basin Big Nine.

“Everybody on the team knows their role,” Austin Valdez said. “We’re going to need everybody to contribute. Our goal is a state championship. In order to reach that goal we’ve all got to be in the same boat, all got to be working hard to get there.”

Score by innings

S — 0 0 0 0 0 0

ML — 2 0 6 4 X 12

Highlights: Vance Alvarado 3 IP, 6 K; Gabe Passey 2x2, 2 RBI, 3B; Austin Valdez 1x2, 2 RBI