Big Game Hunter

It was a pitching performance that materialized out the blue.

Spokane RiverHawks coach Barry Matthews certainly didn’t see it coming. Neither did Andy Hunter – even though he was the guy who turned it in.

Hunter, who just finished his freshman year at Gonzaga University, came up with a gem of an effort at Avista Stadium Friday night in pitching the RiverHawks to a 2-1 win over the Kelowna Falcons in the West Coast League baseball season opener for both teams.

Hunter, who threw only 18 innings for the West Coast Conference Bulldogs, went all nine against the Eastern Division-rival Falcons, allowing only two hits and striking out five. He faced the minimum number of Kelowna batters through the first eight innings after the Falcons’ Brady Rak was caught stealing following his third-inning single.

He did not allow a runner past first until the ninth inning when Rak blasted a one-out solo home run to right field.

“Really, I had no idea it was coming,” Hunter, a rangy 6-foot-6 right-hander from Tucson, Ariz., said of his effort. “In talking to some guys who have played in the (college summer) league in the past, I’ve heard that pitchers need to pump the zone, because the amount of runs scored is a lot less than in college.”

Hunter did exactly that all night long, coming in under the pitch count Matthews had set for him.

“The split-finger was a really good pitch for me tonight, and I located the fastball petty well, too,” Hunters said. “My arm felt good, so I just extended into the game inning by inning.”

Matthews said he learned from GU coach Mark Machtolf that Hunter was a strike-thrower with good location and velocity.

“But I never expected anything like that,” he added. “He was as sharp as you can be, and what a way to set the tone – especially for our pitching staff. I’d like to think that Andy’s one of our aces. And I know if he does that every game, or even close to it, we’ve got a chance of winning.”

Spokane picked up its only two runs of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning without the benefit of a hit. Kelowna starter Tommy Elrod walked the bases full before turning the ball to reliever Jay Friedman, who promptly coaxed the RiverHawks’ Tom Barry into bouncing a two-out grounder to left side of the infield.

Falcons shortstop Louie Templeton ranged far to his right to field the ball but then threw wildly to first, allowing Jake Partridge and Ian Atkinson to score. That’s where Spokane’s big-inning threat ended, however, as Fiedman retired the next batter, Nik Balog, on a grounder to first.

The RiverHawks finished the game with only two hits, one coming off the bat of recent University High School graduate and Gonzaga-bound Billy Moon, who doubled down the right-field line in the second inning, and an the other coming on Balog’s bloop single to right in the third.

Still, the lack of production didn’t seem to concern Matthews, who has watched college and college-bound hitters struggle early in a league that allows only wood bats and plays most of its games at night.

“It’s normal,” he said. “The last three or four years, runs have been tough to come by in the first 10 games or so while the guys are trying to get used to the changes.

“And it’s our job as coaches to keep them working at it to get better – which I think it will.”