by Thomas Clouse
While it may have not been a statement game, Mt. Spokane took on a Rogers team threatening to make a run in the Greater Spokane League and trounced the Pirates 17-2 Thursday in four-and-a-half innings.
Mt. Spokane’s Tyler Bailey went 4-for-4 with a three-run triple and six total RBI, and Wildcat pitcher Stephen Streltzoff pitched a complete-game two hitter with six strikeouts for the big win.
“We played great today,” Mt. Spokane coach Alex Schuerman said. “The league is tough this year. We wanted to go out and earn it.”
Rogers (8-5 GSL) got things started immediately when leadoff hitter and starting pitcher Zach Day singled off Streltzoff and stole second base. Day then stole third and was able to score on a throwing error by Mt. Spokane catcher Billy Parada.
But the Wildcats (11-2 GSL) answered in the bottom of the first inning. After a Bailey single scored Jared Bell and a Matthew Pulliam double scored Bailey, Streltzoff helped his own cause when he smashed a ball into the wind that hit off the top of the right field fence for a double that scored Bailey and Pulliam.
It turned out that’s all the runs Mt. Spokane would need, although they added four more in the second inning and nine in the fourth to shorten the game.
Even the lucky undershirt that Rogers coach Jim Wasem wore to a 4-0 record couldn’t stop the Mt. Spokane hitters from roughing up three of his pitchers.
“They are a good team. That’s why they are in first place,” Wasem said of the Wildcats. “We made a few bone-head plays that gave them extra outs.”
The two teams meet again today at Rogers and Wasem will throw ace Evan Norden.
“They’ve already forgotten” about the loss, Wasem said of his team. “That’s the nice thing about baseball. The sun always rises the next day.”
Bailey, who had the three-run triple to cap off the scoring, said it felt great to have another huge GSL win.
“They are a very good ball club,” Bailey said of Rogers. “They will battle us (today). Hopefully we will come out and still get the win.”