Brown’s Belt Boosts Tribe

Spokane’s Dermal Brown belted a two-run homer, his seventh of the year, to highlight a five-run fifth inning and the Indians went on to thump Southern Oregon 10-3 Saturday night in a Northwest League baseball matchup loaded with strikeouts.

The win avenged Friday’s 8-0 loss to the Timberjacks that snapped the Tribe’s nine-game winning streak. It also kept Spokane (15-4) in first place in the North Division of the NWL.

Jason Gooding, who was 11-0 at Texas Tech this spring, raised his professional record to 2-0 by scattering four hits and striking out seven in the five innings he worked. Only one of the three runs he allowed was earned.

Scott Key picked up his first save by striking out eight in four innings.

Jason Anderson (1-1) got the loss for Southern Oregon (10-8), despite striking out six batters in three innings.

The six pitchers who appeared in the game combined for 32 strikeouts.

Along with the home run from Brown, the Indians got some offensive punch from catcher Jeremy Hill, who stroked three hits - including a double and triple - and drove in two runs. Joe Caruso, Joe Dillon and Francisco Bautista each added two hits for Spokane. One of Dillon’s was a leadoff homer in the second.

The Tribe finished with 12 hits, but matched Southern Oregon’s five errors.

The Timberjacks got their only RBI of the game from shortstop Eddie Lara, who plated Rodney Clifton with a fourth-inning groundout.

The same two teams meet again tonight at 6:05 and close their series with a 7:05 game Monday night.

, DataTimes