CCS starts to get timing down at right time
A baseball team has one thing in common with your family car: If the timing’s off, there’s going to be a lot of rough rides.
Such has been the case for Community Colleges of Spokane. For most of the season, the Sasquatch have hit the ball. But the offense has stalled, lacking the key hit.
Until recently.
“If there has been one thing that we’ve lacked,” coach Dave Keller said. “it’s – not to use too much of a cliché – timely hitting. In crucial games that we’ve lost we’ve left too many runners on base. Hopefully, we’re starting to get those clutch hits now.”
The Sasquatch, at 6-6 in NWAACC East Region play (and 11-17 overall) are still only three games from the top spot held by Big Bend and Columbia Basin. There is still more than half the schedule to play.
The last doubleheader of the first half is today (noon) at SFCC against third-place Walla Walla (23-9 overall, 7-5).
“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Keller said. “These games are huge this week. We’re at home against two teams that, if we’re going to make a run, we have to beat. You know, the Eastern Region title is not out of reach.”
Keller knows his starting pitching will be solid, especially with the resurgence of Jordan Moore (Lakeside-Nine Mile Falls High).
“Jordan pitched himself out of the starting rotation early in the year,” Keller said, “and got a start again this weekend – it’s probably been a month since he started – and he throws a complete game (seven-hitter).”
The other three starters, Luke Farden, Chewelah grad A.J. Proszek (the East Region’s March pitcher of the month) and Chad Flett (Mead) have helped the Sasquatch to a team ERA of 2.33.
The hitting has come around, with the team batting .272. It’s just the offense has sputtered at times.
“I’ve maybe put together the same nine guys in the lineup maybe twice,” Keller said. “We’re struggling to find a leadoff hitter. We’ve probably used 10 different guys in our leadoff role.”
Kody Anderson (Shadle Park), hitting .351, will get a shot in the leadoff spot and the outfield today. Tom Barlow, who has hit .444 in the last three games, has taken over at first. Mike Campo, from Las Vegas, recently became eligible and is hitting .371 in 35 at-bats, moving into the third spot of the order. Shortstop Brian Yardley (.306) has been CCS’ most consistent performer, according to Keller.
Around the area
WSU: The Cougars managed just one win last weekend against visiting Cal, and they can thank first baseman Jim Murphy for that.
Murphy’s two home runs in Friday’s 5-4 victory included a walk-off blast in the bottom of the ninth. The sophomore’s four hits in the weekend raised his average to .344, a marked improvement from last year’s .287 in 50 games. The two home runs give him five and raised his RBI total to 27. Both are just off last year’s full-season total (seven and 28).
This week the Cougs (23-14 overall going into Tuesday night’s game vs. Gonzaga, 5-7 in the Pac-10) travel to Greeley, Colo., to face Northern Colorado (13-21 going into Tuesday’s game at No. 12 Arkansas) in three non-conference games.
Gonzaga: It was rainy in Moraga, Calif., last weekend, and the Saint Mary’s Gaels almost knocked out GU’s West Coast Conference title hopes. But Clayton Mortenson, making his 10th start of the season his best, and Brandon Harmon (Shadle) combined to salvage Monday’s final series game, limiting Saint Mary’s to four hits in the 3-2 victory.
The Bulldogs (23-14, 5-4 WCC), tied for third, host one of the two teams ahead of them, San Francisco (24-15, 6-3) this weekend, starting Friday. All three games, and eight more before the end of the season, will be carried on either 1050-AM or 790-AM radio.
Whitworth: The Pirates (17-15, 11-7 in Northwest Conference play) felt they needed a sweep of Lewis & Clark and they could manage only single Friday victory. Now they travel to Tacoma to take on Puget Sound (11-19, 8-9). Whitworth trails conference-leading George Fox (23-7, 16-4) by four games with six left, but the Pirates are just a game out of second place.