Indians win NWL pennant

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Joey Hooft coined the term, and it spread infectiously through the Spokane Indians clubhouse.

They called it, “Screwing off our way to the championship.”

Not exactly fodder for Little League pregame speeches, but it worked well enough for the Indians, who found a way to scrape out an 8-3 win Monday afternoon and earn the Northwest League championship on the road in Game 5 at Nat Bailey Stadium.

After splitting the first two games of the best-of-5 series in Spokane and losing Game 3 here, the Indians won the last two games for the city’s seventh NWL pennant since 1987, third since 1999 and second in three seasons.

It’s only the second time in NWL history a team with a losing record won the pennant. Salem was the first, in 1982. Ironically, both were over Oakland A’s farm teams. Medford was Salem’s victim.

Indians manager Greg Riddoch had struggled for a while to find words for the way this team has kept fighting, and with a cumulative 40-41 record, they truly won only when it mattered.

“How many nights did we try to describe what in the hell they were doing?” Riddoch said after getting doused by a tub of ice water courtesy of Lizahio Baez and Broc Coffman. “That’s just the way we play this game. It’s the best team at the end, not the best team at the beginning. I told them two weeks ago, you guys are playing the best in the league right now. You’re getting timely hitting, you’re playing pretty good defense and our pitching has coming down from nearly a 6 (ERA) to just over a 4.00.”

A manifestation of that pitching improvement started for the Indians Monday afternoon, as Kellan McConnell gave up two runs in the first inning, but settled down to allow only three more hits in his final five innings. He had an ERA near 9.00 in July, but there he was picking up the win in the pennant-clinching game.

Spokane and Vancouver were deadlocked at 2 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning when the Indians threw a little bit of leather at the Canadians.

Chad Boyd, the series hit leader, led off for Vancouver with a bloop into short center field. Terry Blunt, playing second base for the Indians but usually an outfielder, made a difficult, twisting catch going away from the plate for the first out.

After back-to-back singles by Steve Kleen and Jeff Baisley, K.C. Herren made, with all apologies to Joe Kemp’s amazing catch in Game 3, the most important play of the series.

Vancouver’s big cleanup hitter, Haas Pratt, jumped all over a McConnell pitch that sent Herren, playing left field, back to the warning track. As Herren sprinted back and the ball fell toward the ground, he flipped out his glove and caught it, saving two runs. McConnell went on to retire the next batter, setting up Spokane’s offense to decide it in the next half-inning.

Herren doubled with one out off Canadians reliever Jason Ray, and Kemp followed with an RBI single to right field, moving to second on right fielder Jose Garcia’s error. Kemp went to third on a passed ball, and then designated hitter Jonathan Higashi flied out to center fielder Mike Massaro for the second out.

Massaro’s throw home was right on line, but Kemp, who tagged up at third on the catch and raced home, leveled the Canadians’ massive catcher, Anthony Recker, knocking the ball loose for what turned out to be the winning run.

Vancouver scored once in the bottom of the seventh off Juan Jimenez to make it 4-3, but the Indians got four more in the top of the eighth on an error, an RBI single by Freddie Thon and a two-run single by Higashi.

You could tell when the game was on the line, which was the loosest team.

“We were talking about it yesterday,” said Kemp, who ended up coming out of the game after the top of the eighth with a sore right shoulder. “They get a big hit and they’re over there hooting and hollering and we get a hit by Crabby (catcher Ben Crabtree) and we’re sitting there throwing gum at him.”

It would be difficult to pick an MVP for the series, as nobody shouldered the offensive load, but you could choose a pair of Indians relievers, who came on for the second straight day and third in the series to shut down the Canadians in the late innings.

Nate Fogle struck out three in 1 2/3 hitless innings, and then Jon Wilson closed it, pitching a scoreless ninth.

The two combined for nine scoreless innings at the back end of three Indians wins.

“We felt like at the end of the season, we could beat anybody,” Fogle said. “It feels good to win it here. Look at our record. I don’t think many people would give us a shot.”

They wouldn’t have much reason to, when the Indians hit .178 with 39 strikeouts in the first four games. Six different players in Monday’s starting lineup came into the game batting .214 or lower in the series.

Then they came out Monday and eight different players got hits and five different players drove in runs.

“Guess who’s coming to dinner?” Riddoch said, using a metaphor to describe who shows up to play on game day, when for most of the season he didn’t know.

“How gratifying.”