Spokane Beats Bears, Keeps Goals In Reach Indians Stay In Tie For 2nd Place; Vida Remains In Nwl Batting Race

The Spokane Indians attained one goal on Saturday and put themselves in position to reach two more.

By beating the Yakima Bears 7-3, Spokane improved to 36-39 - its most wins since the 1990 Northwest League championship team.

Two other objectives remained attainable.

Spokane stayed tied with Everett for second place in the Northern Division. Everett needed 12 innings to defeat league champion Bellingham 7-6.

Also, the Indians’ James Vida kept alive his shot at a league batting title.

Vida went 3 for 5 and had two runs batted in to reach a club-high 39. Vida is hitting .32867, just a shade behind Danny Buxbaum of Boise. Buxbaum, who didn’t play on Saturday, is at .3290043. Buxbaum’s teammate, Ty Bilderback, is third at .322.

Spokane has won three straight. The Indians lead their season series with Yakima 6-5 after starting the year 0-4 against the Bears. Yakima (27-48) has lost nine straight.

Tony Miranda scored twice for Spokane, giving him a league-high 53 which nobody is in line to catch.

Trailing 1-0, the Indians broke through in the fourth, sending nine to the plate and scoring five times. The big blow was Joel Nations’ two-run double to right-center. Nations hadn’t played for two games because of a sore elbow.

The Indians chased Yakima starter Pedro Cervantes (3-5) in the fourth. His replacement, J.J. Pearsall, uncorked a wild pitch to score William Roland from third, then gave up Brett Schafer’s RBI single to left.

The Bears crept within two runs in the fourth as Indians starter and winner Allen Sanders (4-5) threw a run-scoring wild pitch and third baseman Roland made an error to bring in another run. Sanders had a sub-par effort, allowing nine hits before giving way to relievers Bryan Judice and D. Wayne Upchurch.

Nations completed the scoring with a fifthinning single to center after Vida’s RBI groundout.

The NWL season ends tonight, with Spokane’s Hal Hodge (3-1) scheduled to start against Seferino Soto (0-2).