Spokane Indians tie for first place as Darius Day leads offense in win over Boise
BOISE – Darius Day homered and tripled to lead a 16-hit attack and the Spokane Indians beat the Boise Hawks 10-5 in Northwest League action on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
With Tri-City’s 6-2 loss to Hillsboro, Spokane (18-18) tied the Dust Devils for first place in the North Division with two games to play in the first half.
Spokane jumped on Boise starter Javier Medina for two runs in the top of the first. Day led off with a triple and scored on Seth Spivey’s single. Preston Scott’s grounder forced Spivey at second, but Scott came around to score on Chad Smith’s single to right. Smith was thrown out trying for second on the play.
The Indians added a run in the second on Alex Kowalczyk’s double and a single by Charles LeBlanc.
Boise (15-21) picked up a pair of runs in the bottom of the second, but the Indians put up a three-spot in the third.
Spivey started the rally with a walk, then Scott was hit by pitch. Smith followed with a homer to right, his second of the season. Smith went 3 for 5 with five RBIs.
Boise answered with three runs in the bottom of the third.
Jacob Bosiokovic’s double put runners at second and third, and Luis Castro was hit by pitch to load them up. Willie Abreu reached on a fielding error by first baseman Todd McDonald and Daniel Suero scored.
After Bobby Stahel was called out on strikes, Bosiokovic scored on Wesley Jones’ sacrifice fly. With Will Haynie batting, Abreu stole second and Luis Castro scored. Haynie walked, but Abreu was thrown out at home trying to score on a passed ball.
Day led off the fourth with his third home run of the season. Spokane added an insurance run in the seventh on McDonald’s second homer of the season, and two more in the eighth on an RBI triple by Scott and Smith’s run-scoring single.
Reid Anderson (1-0) earned the win with 3 2/3 innings of one-hit, scoreless relief. Steven Bruce picked up his first save, tossing 2 1/3 perfect innings with two strikeouts. Starter Kyle Cody allowed five runs – three earned – on four hits and two walks in just three innings.
The teams play again in Boise at 6:15 p.m. Sunday.