Jess Brown

Taylor Ard is finding out that the third time really can be the charm. The former Washington State Cougar’s home run on Sunday night was one of three straight homers for Everett as the AquaSox won 7-6 in 12 innings and picked up a second straight Northwest League victory over the Spokane Indians in front of 4,120 fans at Avista Stadium.

Mike Zunino is wasting no time showing everyone in the Northwest League why he’s the Seattle Mariners’ four-million dollar man before even enjoying a cup of coffee in the bigs. The Everett AquaSox catcher – the Mariners’ top pick and third overall selection in this year’s MLB draft – was batting .356 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs in 27 games prior to Saturday night’s game between the Spokane Indians and AquaSox.

Despite improvements in nearly every department, there is still one basic thing eluding the Spokane Indians – the extra-inning victory. Despite rallying from a six-run deficit, the Indians let another one slip away on Sunday evening as Daniel Vogelbach homered to right field with two outs in the 11th inning to give the Boise Hawks a 10-9 victory in Northwest League play in front of 4,093 fans at Avista Stadium.

So far, the Spokane Indians are showing what it means to be a second-half team. And just like turning up the volume earlier in the season would have benefitted the Indians, who finished last in the first-half standings, Spokane waited too long to make noise in a battle for first place on Saturday night.

As a college senior at Samford University, baseball wasn’t something over which Joseph Burns was going to lose his hair. He couldn’t. Or, rather, he wouldn’t.

Longtime Spokane hockey player and coach Buddy Bodman used to keep a hockey puck in his pocket during his coaching years – and it wasn’t for superstitious reasons. “You’d throw it on the ice in case of a breakaway or if you got hemmed in your own end. If you only got caught one out of five times, what the hell,” Bodman told former Spokesman-Review reporter Howie Stalwick in a 1987 article.

The Spokane Shadow soccer club took its show to the national stage recently, and gave a performance worthy of a gold star. The Shadow’s G94-Philp squad won the women’s U-19 gold championship at the Pleasanton (Calif.) RAGE College Showcase 2012. The Shadow won all four games, beating Eagles Blue (3-0), Mission Viejo SC MVSC (4-1), California Futbol CFC Valedoras (4-0) and SC Athletic (3-0).

Just as Spokane Indians manager Tim Hulett was giving a metaphorical hat tip to his bullpen on Sunday evening, his players gathered around the dugout to celebrate their latest triumph. One night after putting together what Hulett called their best game of the season, four Indians pitchers struck out half of the batters they faced and combined for a one-hitter, as Spokane set up a battle for first place this week with a 3-0 Northwest League victory over the Yakima Bears in front of 4,543 fans at Avista Stadium.

Will the real Spokane Indians please stand up? Because this second-half team – the one making fewer defensive errors, coming up with hits (timely ones, at that) and taking control from the mound – doesn’t look like the same team that finished last in the first half of the Northwest League season.

Three pitchers combined for Spokane’s third shutout of the season and the Indians had as many hits as they did runs in a 7-0 victory over the Yakima Bears in front of 5,659 fans at Avista Stadium.

Four years ago Justin Falk and Jared Spurgeon weren’t old enough to drink a beer in the United States. But the Canadian hockey players – who spent over half of their teenage years in Spokane, living with host families, spending countless hours on buses, and manning the blue line for the Spokane Chiefs – were young and talented enough to win the coveted Memorial Cup.

There are still issues to address. Trends to buck. Runs to score. But on Tuesday night, Joe Maloney helped the Spokane Indians push pause on all of that and begin a new streak.