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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Homers hand Indians another home loss

Friday night's 4-1 loss to the Boise Hawks left the Spokane Indians with the worst record (1-6) in the Northwest League. The Indians are also the lone NWL team still seeking its first home victory. Friday's culprit was two Boise home runs that accounted for all of the Hawks' runs. Spokane led 1-0 after five innings before Boise unleashed its power game. Read story

The Indians' team batting average slipped below .200 on Friday, but Spokane manager Tim Hulett kept open a bit of optimism.

"It's not been pretty," Hulett admitted. "We have a lot of guys still trying to get their feet wet in pro ball. It takes a little bit of time. We're kind of hands-off with the new guys and give them some at-bats, give them a chance to figure out what they're doing. It's pretty normal, just frustrating when you can't puts runs on the board."

Hulett knows that Spokane is going to have to generate offense without waiting for a bunch of homers.

"When you got a guy (on the other team) who can knock one out of the yard, there's always a threat," he said. "That's going to be difficult for us. The biggest thing is we're going to have to put two hits together. We do a good job of situational hitting, but we have to hit with two outs."

Indians reliever Justin Sprenger had the bases empty and two out in the eighth when he got into trouble.

"He didn't really make a mistake," Hulett said. "He got a little cautious at one point and then he got (a 3-0 count) on a good hitter and threw one down the middle. And (Yasiel Balaguert) didn't miss it."



Chris Derrick

Chris Derrick joined The Spokesman-Review in 1990. He currently is a copy editor for the Sports Desk.

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