Bears hold off Highlanders in high-scoring thriller, 12-11

Shadle Park baseball players enhanced their batting statistics at the expense of Central Valley pitching Friday, but it wasn’t enough to prevent them from losing ground in the Greater Spokane League.

The Highlanders (8-3, 6-3) pounded 18 hits, including a three-run, seventh-inning home run by Josh Powell, but lost to the Bears (8-5, 6-5) 12-11.

Powell’s bomb left the CV stadium still rising at 365-feet, to tie the score at 11 after Shadle had dug itself a six-run hole in a nightmarish second inning.

But CV’s No. 9 hitter, Dale Beach, opened the bottom of the inning with a sharp single to left. Ryan Maynes followed with a bunt single and Brad Johnson followed with a blow to left-center that drove in the winning run.

The Highlanders had scored twice in the top of the second inning to lead 2-1, including Clay Scribner’s solo homer that bounced on top of and over the left field fence.

But then the entire Shadle infield had a hand, at least stone hands, in CV’s seven-run bottom of the frame. Each infielder had a miscue that, combined with Shadle starter Mark Sherwood’s four walks, produced the majority of the runs.

“It’s kind of like hitting,” Highlanders coach Ron Brooks said. “Hitting’s contagious and so is defense. Sometimes when an error happens, another one happens and it kind of multiplies. Offensively, we saw it the other way. When one guy gets a hit, everyone wants to get up there.”

Shadle had hits in every inning and multiple hits in six. Powell went 4 for 5, and Ryne Kiter, Kjel Carlson and No. 9 hitter Brandon Hughes all had three.

But the Bears clung to their advantage. Scott Froelich, after getting bonked on the helmet, scored on Maynes’ fifth-inning hit, then poked a two-out, two-run single into right field an inning later.

Trailing 11-8 in the seventh, Shadle’s rally, punctuated by the Powell blast, left CV perilously close to blowing its fourth straight late-inning lead.

“We’ve been in a position in every game we’ve lost,” coach Barry Poffenroth said, “that at some point in the fifth, sixth or seventh inning we can’t shut the door. Luckily we were home.”

In the bottom of the last inning, CV came through to spoil a game relief effort by Shadle’s Chris Bates. Bates had worked 42/3 innings as Shadle scrapped back before Johnson delivered.

“It was right there on the inside part of the plate and I got something to drive,” Johnson said.

The Highlanders played without injured shortstop Kody Anderson (ankle sprain). They won two of three games during the week, but trail Ferris and Mt. Spokane, both 8-1 in league.

Wild finishes were the order of the day in other GSL games. Brett Richardson‘s walk-off, three-run homer lifted North Central (7-5, 7-4) to a 6-5 victory and a sweep of its Thursday-Friday series with visiting Rogers (5-6, 3-6). The Pirates had broken a 3-3 tie with two runs in the top of the inning before Richardson’s blow came on an 0-2 pitch with no one out. He also pitched 62/3 innings, allowing seven walks and six hits, but striking out eight. … Mead (3-6) nearly blew a 10-3 lead after four innings, needing two runs in the seventh for a 12-11 win over visiting East Valley (6-7, 5-6) for a split of their series. Colton Riddle went 4 for 4 and Andy Mattingly was 3 for 4, including a triple, with four runs scored and two RBIs. … Two-runs each in the final three innings lifted Lewis and Clark (5-6, 5-4) over host Cheney (2-10, 2-7) 10-5. Himes Alexander‘s two-run single in the fifth started the late surge. Brandon Arnold went 3 for 3. … University (5-7, 5-6) won its third high-scoring game of the week, 12-4 at West Valley (6-5, 5-4). Adam Smith went 3 for 4 with a home run, scoring three times and driving in two. Calvin Jurich stemmed a WV rally from an 8-0 deficit with 22/3 innings of scoreless relief.