RiverHawks fall short, lose to Elks in ninth

BEND, Ore. – Dusty Harvard’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning scored Travis Georgius and gave the Bend Elks a 3-2 win over the Spokane RiverHawks Thursday in West Coast Collegiate Baseball League play at Vince Genna Stadium.

Bend improved to 10-8 on the season while Spokane fell to 7-11, seven games behind East Division leader Moses Lake (14-4).

With the bases loaded in the top of the ninth, Spokane’s Brian Yardley grounded out to first base, scoring Shawn Wayt to notch the game at 2.

Marco Grifantini (2-0) earned the win for Bend after allowing one unearned run in one inning of relief.

Tommy Tribbett (0-2) took the loss for the RiverHawks, allowing four hits and the winning run in 1 1/3 innings.

With the win, the Elks completed the series sweep. Bend won the first game 8-5 on Tuesday and then routed Spokane 12-2 on Wednesday.

Bryan Horst led Spokane with three hits and Max Navalinski added two hits.

The RiverHawks have an off-day today before beginning a three-game series with Wenatchee (6-10) Saturday at 7 p.m. at Avista Stadium. Sunday’s game has been postponed due to a scheduling conflict and will be played as part of a doubleheader on Monday at Avista.