Indians split with S-K
When the night starts off with a single and a home run, it’s a great omen, but when a game starts with a couple of errors, not so much.
That’s how it went for the Spokane Indians Thursday when they split a pair of Northwest League baseball games with Salem-Keizer at Avista Stadium.
Before many of the crowd of 4,142 arrived for the early restart of Wednesday’s rain-delayed game, Spokane’s Jared Prince slapped a single and Zach Zaneski homered, making the difference in a 4-3 win.
Then stellar pitching was wasted when the Volcanoes pushed across a run in the 10th to go with an unearned run in the first for a 2-1 win in a game scheduled for seven innings.
“It was a great night for the pitchers,” Spokane manager Tim Hulett said. “Everybody they ran at us, hard good arms. It was a tough game.”
The Indians (25-28) had taken a 2-1 lead on a Jason Ogata home run just before the rain hit Wednesday and they picked up where they left off Thursday evening.
Prince was at the plate with a 2-2 count and two outs when David Quinowski threw his first pitch. Two pitches later, Zaneski knocked his second home run of the season over the left-field fence.
“That was a great momentum start for us,” Hulett said. “Jared Prince goes up there and has a 2-2 count. What a tough situation, 24 hours later you have to fight off a tough pitch and get a hit.”
Joseph Ortiz (2-0) pitched three scoreless innings before allowing a run in the eighth and giving way to Justin King. Despite allowing a run in the ninth, King picked up his second save.
Salem-Keizer 2, Spokane 1 (10): Leadoff hitter Jose Medina reached first on a throwing error by Edward Martinez, Ryan Lollis followed with a soft single to right that Prince bobbled, allowing Martinez to reach third. Dan Cook had a sacrifice fly to right.
The Indians had another error in the second and the Volcanoes (34-19) loaded the bases in the third – with Prince saving the day with a shoe-string catch – but overall Spokane starter Braden Tullis was in control.
His replacement, Reiner Bermudez, struck out five in three innings.
The S-K hurlers were just as tough. Starter Jeremy Toole went six innings, only allowing a third-inning run because he walked Joe Bonadonna with two outs. After a stolen base, Prince drove in Bonadonna.
In the 10th, Chris Matlock (1-5) gave up a leadoff single to Juan Martinez. After two strikeouts and a wild pitch, Lollis came up with the winning hit.