Indians Fall To Volcanoes, But Remain 7 Games Back

The Spokane Indians, given a chance to pick up a game on North Division leader Boise, failed with a 6-4 loss to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes in a Northwest League baseball game Tuesday night.

Travis Young drove in Joe Fluentes, who had doubled, in the sixth inning to provide what proved to be the winning run as the Volcanoes took a 5-3 lead.

The Indians cut the margin to 5-4 in the seventh inning. Rich Petru singled to left and moved to third on Goefrey Tomlinson’s sacrifice bunt after it was thrown away for an error. Petru then scored on another fielding error.

The Volcanoes picked up an insurance run without a hit in the eighth when they scored with the help of walks and two passed balls.

Spokane had a chance to tie the game in the ninth after Dermal Brown doubled off the wall and slugger Juan LeBron came up. But LeBron looked at strike three to end the game.

The Indians had taken a 3-1 lead in the top of the third after Mike Brambilla slugged his second home run of the year. It was a three-run shot that came after two walks.

The loss kept the Indians seven games back of Boise, which lost 10-4 to Eugene.

The series continues tonight with Scott Key (2-3, 3.15 ERA) going for the Indians against Kevin Joseph (2-2, 2.59).