Mavs sweep Davis

MOSES LAKE – Coming off of Tuesday’s 11-1 win over Davis, the Mavs completed the regular season sweep over the Pirates with back-to-back 4-2 wins on Friday night in Moses Lake.

“Davis is a really good team,” Moses Lake senior Joshua West said. “We saw a kid (throwing) in the upper 80’s. To beat a team like that, in a sweep, it’s really good – especially coming off of a loss. I know the team’s really hyped up after that.”

Strong baserunning helped the Mavs capture both of Friday’s wins, where the Pirates out-hit Moses Lake 8-6 in the first game and 7-3 in the nightcap. The Mavs had several instances of stolen bases leading to runs off of base hits.

“I learned it a long time ago – baserunning’s going to make a difference, one or two runs a game,” Moses Lake Head Coach Donnie Lindgren said. “I think it showed today.”

Along with a solid baserunning performance, the Mavs battled back from two early outs in two separate innings in the first game on Friday night.

“That’s the nice thing about baseball, there’s no time clock – except major league now – but the inning’s never over,” Lindgren said. “The game’s never over, and that’s why you can’t let up at all. Our goal is to get to the next guy.”

West added the first run off an RBI double in the first inning of game one, and the bottom of the third inning saw junior Nolan Betz score off a wild pitch and senior Drew Greninger drive in a run for a 3-0 lead. After the Pirates added two runs in the top of the fifth, senior Zane Harden’s triple then set up another RBI by West, giving the Mavs a 4-0 lead.

“The ball was looking really big, so I just tried to do as much as I could for my team,” West said.

With a 4-2 lead in the top of the seventh, the Pirates began a brief rally that ended up getting the bases loaded. Pitching in relief of starter Michael Getzinger, senior Kaiden Valdez struck out two of the final three batters to close out a 4-2 win for the Mavs.

“Blaine (Macdonald) came up to me and asked ‘What do you want to throw first?’” Valdez said. “I’m starting curveball, (the batter) went for it, and that’s what I struck him out with. That’s how it ended.”

The nightcap on Friday had a similar start, when Betz once again scored on a wild pitch to give Moses Lake a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. An RBI single by sophomore Adrian Martinez added another run in the bottom of the second, and after a Davis run in the top of the fourth, Martinez scored on a wild pitch after stealing third base.

Four of the six first Mav batters in the top of the fifth inning were walked, sending home sophomore Jackson Carlos on a bases loaded walk for a 4-2 lead, which eventually held as the final score. Moses Lake improved to 13-2 with the win, but Lindgren said the team is remaining focused on the task at hand ahead of the final two series of the regular season.

“People are going to say ‘Hey, you’re in first place! You’re good, you’re great!’” Lindgren said. “We have a long way to go. We haven’t played our best baseball yet, hopefully, that’s to come, but we’ve got two good teams in Wenatchee and West Valley and hopefully, we can compete against them.”

Moses Lake’s first win against Davis on Tuesday was sparked by an eight-run inning that led to an eventual 11-1 win over the Pirates.

“We caught them off-guard the first game, and then these two could have gone either way,” Lindgren said. “It’s one of those things where we’ve got to play our best to beat teams like Davis, because they are a good baseball team.”

Moses Lake hosts Wenatchee for a standalone game at 5 p.m. on Tuesday before traveling to the Panthers for a doubleheader on Friday.

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Scores

Game One

DAV: 0-0-0-0-2-0-0 2

ML: 1-0-2-0-1-0-0 4

Game Two

DAV: 0-0-0-0-2-0-0 2

ML: 1-1-0-1-1-0-0 4