Boise nips Spokane
Hawks score winner with unearned run
BOISE – Robert Hernandez pitched four-hit ball for six innings and the Boise Hawks scored an unearned run in the sixth inning Wednesday to edge the Spokane Indians 1-0 at Memorial Stadium.
Boise won the series 2-1 as it heads out on a 12-game road trip, including six in Spokane. The home crowd sent off the Hawks with a sellout of 3,866.
Both teams are 27-31, seven games behind Tri-City in the Northwest League’s North Division with 18 games left.
Spokane begins a three-game series at Tri-City tonight. The Dust Devils are 6-3 against the Indians this season, but Spokane has won three of the last four.
Hernandez (3-3) gave way to Eduardo Figueroa, who pitched the seventh and eighth innings, and Dionis Nunez, who pitched the ninth to earn his fifth save.
Boise native Braden Tullis (2-2) took the loss for Spokane, allowing four hits in six innings, striking out five and walking one.
The Hawks scored against Tullis in the sixth, without getting the ball out of the infield.
Jose Valdez and Hak-Ju Lee had back-to-back infield singles with one out. Valdez advanced to third base on Lee’s single after an error by Spokane second baseman Joe Bonadonna.
Logan Watkins followed with a fielder’s choice that scored Valdez.
Hernandez wiggled out of two Spokane scoring opportunities.
Hernandez loaded the bases in the first inning, hitting Bonadonna and Tom Mendonca with pitches. He coaxed an inning-ending grounder from Jared Prince.
Zach Zaneski led off the fifth against Hernandez with a single to right field. Zaneski moved to third base on Denny Duron’s one-out double, but he was thrown out at home by right fielder Jae-Hoon Ha while trying to score on Kyle Rhoad’s flyout.
Figueroa also needed to escape a jam in the seventh. With Indians on first and third with nobody out, Zaneski flew out and Figueroa struck out Clark Murphy and Duron.