Othello, Brewster split non-league doubleheader
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald. Nathan Garza Jr. slides home with the winning run during the Othello-Brewster baseball game Saturday.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Coach Sonny Garza (center, dark shirt) talks with his team during Saturday's baseball game with Brewster.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Jay Rodriguez digs for third during the Othello-Brewster baseball game Saturday.
Cheryl Schweizer/Columbia Basin Herald Jonathan Ozuna makes it safely back to first during the Othello-Brewster baseball game Saturday.
OTHELLO — The last Othello Huskies baseball home game of the season resulted in a split with the Brewster Bears in a non-league doubleheader Saturday.
The Huskies lost the first game 8-4, but won the second game 7-6, with Nathan Garza Jr. scoring the winning run, coming on a two-out double by Joshua Garza in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Othello baseball Senior Day, a barbecue courtesy of team parents, a warm spring Saturday, a good baseball game - well, Brewster coach Todd Phillips wasn’t sure about the good game part.
“The second (game) was a close game,” he said. “A lot of mistakes made by both teams, and they just made fewer than we did.”
Othello coach Sonny Garza liked the way the Huskies stayed in the second game. “They kept fighting. They stuck at it,” he said. The coaches have been working with the team keep battling, “just continue to fight,” and in the second game, that’s what the Huskies did, he said.
Brewster pitcher Connor Ashworth was a puzzle Othello couldn’t solve in the first game, Garza said. “He kept us off balance.”
The second game saw an early Othello lead erased before the Huskies came back in dramatic fashion. Othello took a 3-0 lead in the first inning on consecutive doubles, and bumping the lead to 4-0 in the third inning. Brewster’s Quincy Vasser hit the game’s only home run to cut the lead in the fourth, and Brewster scored four runs in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead. Othello came back with one run in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game; the Bears answered with one run in the top of the sixth. Othello took the game with two runs, scored with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.
Othello returns to league play Tuesday at Grandview, with the last regular season game at league-leading Selah April 27. Currently the Huskies are third in the Central Washington Athletic Conference Division 1.
Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.