Huskies dominate over Prosser in strong home matchup

OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies (5-2) earned a 14-0 victory over a Central Washington Athletic Conference rival, Prosser, on Tuesday afternoon. This victory follows another strong victory over Prosser for the Huskies last week, where they won 13-0 on the road. 

“We had a good plan going in. We were going to use a couple pitchers,” said Huskies Head Coach Sonny Garza. “We were really aggressive at the plate, something that we’ve been talking to our guys (about). They executed and did what they needed to do.” 

The Huskies got off to a hot start as they got on the board in the bottom of the first inning, after Ryan Martinez doubled to score two runs, an error scored two runs, and a wild pitch scored one run.  

Othello added to their lead in the bottom of the second with walks from Quade Gonzalez and Ryan Martinez and Trey Toval grounding out with Prosser committing an error as each scored one run. 

In the third inning, the Huskies once again held their opponent scoreless and when up to bat, extended the Othello lead with a single from Gonzalez, a single from Martinez, a single from Tovar, a ground ball into fielder’s choice from Noah Ozuna and an error from Prosser each scoring a run.  Going into the fourth inning, the Huskies were up 14-0. 

Efforts from Prosser were stalled by Othello in the final two innings before the Huskies claimed victory in the bottom of the fifth on the 10-run rule. 

Aiden Garza earned the win for the Huskies as he gave up zero hits and zero runs over three innings to strike out six and walk one. Xzyyvn Martinez pitched two innings of relief, givning up one hit, striking out three and walking one. 

The day was sweetened for coach Garza as he celebrated his 40th birthday with a Huskies victory and had players from his Central Washington Sixers team attend the game and gift him a brand-new cane. 

The Huskies coach said the team has shown growth in their confidence so far this season and that was on display in their efforts against Prosser. Throughout the game, the boys were putting the ball in play, capitalizing on errors and staying aggressive at the plate by making hard hits that forced the defense to play. 

Othello shone defensively throughout the game as they held the opposition scoreless with only one hit over five innings. 

“Defense is real big for us,” said coach Garza. “We’ll continue to work on our defense to make sure we can back up our pitching. When teams start putting the ball in play and you get guys who get good contact, we have to make sure that we can take care of the ball behind our pitchers.” 

Offensively, he said the team will continue their aggression at bat while fine tuning their hits.  

After facing five non-conference matchups to start off the season, Coach Garza said the Huskies gained great experience against tough teams that they’ll use moving forward in the season. With the first two league games behind them, the Huskies plan to find more ways to improve as they climb up the ranks in the CWAC. 

“It was good to face those (tough) teams early so that once we get into league play, we kind of know where our guys are. We know what we need to do with certain guys in certain situations,” said the Huskies coach. “I felt really good about our schedule so far with our non-league teams that we played and getting our guys ready to go for league play.” 

The Huskies head on the road Saturday for another league matchup to face Grandview in a doubleheader with the first game starting at 11 a.m. 

BOX SCORE 

PRSS: 0-0-0-0-0: 0 

OTHL: 5-4-5-0-x: 14 

    Othello’s Noah Ozuna steps up to bat and prepares to swing at a pitch during Tuesday’s game against Prosser.
  

    Huskies player Tyler Suarez sprints toward first base after making a hit against Prosser.
  

    Quade Gonzalez (18) from Othello stands on third base with Huskies Head Coach Sonny Garza, left, watching the next Huskies batter step up to the plate.
  

    Huskies player Trey Tovar gets ahold of the ball and throws to first base to get a quick out on a Prosser runner Tuesday.
  

    RJay Garza from Othello takes off toward first base after making a hit during Tuesday’s matchup against Prosser.