Mavs win in walk-off fashion over Chiawana

MOSES LAKE — Friday’s non-league baseball game between Moses Lake and Chiawana came down to extra innings, with Maverick senior Nolan Betz sealing a 3-2 Moses Lake win on a walk-off hit in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Betz singled on a fly ball to right field, delivering his first walk-off hit of his career.

“On that last swing, I was just thinking, ‘Put the bat on the ball, swing hard,’” Betz said. “I had a rough couple at-bats before where I didn’t do the job, and I just needed to clear my mind and get it done.”

The ball bounced past the Riverhawk right fielder and sent home Moses Lake junior Jackson Carlos, who was standing on first base.

“Both teams right here, we were very evenly matched,” Lindgren said. “We got the luck of the bounce, it got by that right fielder, and Jackson Carlos — who’s one of our fastest guys out there — scored on it. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, but to have someone to come up, Nolan Betz had struggled at the plate, and what’s he do? He comes up and gets a base hit.”

Chiawana opened the game with a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning, but the Moses Lake defense held the Riverhawks scoreless through the rest of the game. Lindgren credited the team’s focus on the little things in their defensive performance from the second inning on.

“We like to put pressure on other teams, so when we run the bases we run hard from the get-go,” Lindgren said. “One of the errors was a pop-up out to right field, and our kid ended up on second base because he’s running hard; our guy scores because he’s running hard instead of just thinking he’s going to make the play.”

Moses Lake got runs back in the second and fifth innings by scoring on Chiawana errors; junior Adrian Martinez scored in the bottom of the second inning on an error at first base, and junior Wyatt Cole reached home off of an error in right field.

“We’ve been working every single day on the basic fundamentals — fielding ground balls and throwing the ball, we’ve worked a lot on pop-ups and fly balls and going and getting them because we struggled with that a little bit,” Lindgren said. “Our guys just bought in; hard work and doing the little things, and it really paid off today.”

Moses Lake improved to 2-1 with the win, having fallen 7-3 to Hazen on March 9 and defeating Pasco 15-0 on Tuesday.

“We were kind of anxious — we were waiting to see how we would play against a really good baseball team, and Chiawana’s a really good baseball team,” Lindgren said. “... We knew today was going to be a lot more like a league game.”

The Mavericks open Columbia Basin Big 9 play with a road game against Sunnyside on Tuesday before coming back Friday to host the Grizzlies in a doubleheader.

“They’re a much-improved team,” Lindgren said. “They’ve got some guys that played summer ball and it’s going to be a good challenge.”

Before then, Moses Lake heads to Seattle for a practice session at T-Mobile Park on Saturday; Lindgren said the Mariners’ ground crew was looking for a team to practice on the newly resurfaced field, which was put in by Moses Lake-based Desert Green Turf. 

“I don’t know who’s more excited; the coaches or the players,” Lindgren said.

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

Box score

CHIA: 2-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 2
MSLK: 0-1-0-1-0-0-0-1 3

    Moses Lake senior Nolan Betz delivered a walk-off hit in the bottom of the eighth inning against Chiawana Friday.
  

Moses Lake junior Cooper Hancock got the start on the mound Friday afternoon against Chiawana.

    Moses Lake junior Jackson Carlos throws the ball back toward the infield.