Indians fall to Tri-City, fail in bid to reach .500

PASCO – The Spokane Indians came up short in their bid to reach the .500 mark on Saturday at Dust Devils Stadium.

Tri-City pushed across seven runs in the middle innings en route to a 10-4 victory in Northwest League play.

The Indians (9-11) remained tied for first with Boise in the East Division. Yakima rallied to score a pair of ninth-inning runs to beat the visiting Hawks.

The Dust Devils (7-13) pulled away from a 2-all tie with a four-run fourth inning off Indians reliever John Slusarz.

Joshua Banda started the scoring spree with a one-out solo home run. Tri-City sandwiched four singles around a hit batter to score three more runs, the last two coming on a pair of passed balls by Spokane catcher Hunter Harrigan.

Geoff Strickland’s two-run double capped a three-run fifth inning for Tri-City against reliever Shannon Wirth.

The Dust Devils jumped to a 2-0 first-inning lead off Spokane starter Kasey Kiker, using three straight singles to open the inning, an RBI groundout by Victor Ferrante and an RBI single by Bret Berglund.

The Indians pulled even in the third. Harrigan led off with a double and scored on a Johnny Washington double. Washington stole third and scored on Chad Tracy’s groundout.

Spokane’s final two runs came in the eighth on a bases-loaded walk to Wally Backman Jr. and a groundout.