Indians claim series

Mike Nickeas has the magic touch in 7-6 baseball games.

On Tuesday, Nickeas hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to give the Spokane Indians a 7-6 win over Salem-Keizer.

Friday night’s effort wasn’t as spectacular, but it generated another 7-6 win over the Volcanoes. Nickeas lined a one-out sacrifice fly to right field in the ninth to score Brandon Cashman from third base and delight an Avista Stadium crowd of 6,421.

“I was kind of hoping it would drop and I’d get a (hit), but I’ll take it,” said Spokane’s catcher and cleanup hitter.

The Indians (5-3) won the series 3-2 and wiped away the memory of two consecutive blowout losses to the Volcanoes (4-4). Each Indians win during the series was by a one-run margin.

Spokane trailed 6-2 after the Volcanoes’ three-run fifth.

“(Reliever Marcos) Herrera was pretty much the story of the game,” said Indians manager Darryl Kennedy. “After we’d scored (in the fifth) to make it 6-3, he went out and shut them down 1-2-3.”

Spokane tied the game with a three-run sixth highlighted by Bobby LeNoir’s two-out, two-run single to center on a 1-2 pitch.

“For Bobby, that was a huge hit because he’s been struggling a little bit,” Kennedy said. “He got down two strikes but stayed with it.”

Kevin Mahar, Brock Jacobsen and LeNoir, the 7-8-9 hitters in Spokane’s batting order, combined to finish 6 for 10 with four runs and four RBIs. Mahar hit his first professional homer while leading off the third, a shot into the Grotto area in right field.

“You can’t say enough about the guys at the bottom of the lineup and how well they did tonight,” Nickeas said. “They kept us in the game the whole time.”

The guys at the top of the order, Cashman, Travis Metcalf and Nickeas, took care of matters in the ninth.

Cashman walked with one out against Trevor Wohlgemuth (0-1). Cashman stole his third base of the season, and took third on Metcalf’s solid single to left.

“After that, I was trying to get something up in the air,” Nickeas said. “I hadn’t seen (Wohlgemuth) before, so I waited to get a pitch under my belt. I took a strike, fouled off a pitch that would have been a ball, and then he left something up that I could get into the outfield.”

Kennedy said the comeback made up for Spokane’s five infield errors.

Left fielder Brian Horwitz led the Volcanoes, finishing 3 for 5 with two runs and one RBI. Horwitz also chased down Metcalf’s liner to the gap in left-center with two Indians aboard in the fifth.

Jesse Ingram (1-0) earned the win by allowing just an infield single while recording the game’s final four outs. Ingram coaxed Will Thompson’s inning-ending groundout to second with the bases loaded in the eighth.

Spokane begins a five-game series tonight at Everett, the league’s hottest team. Right-hander Josh Rupe (0-0, 2.25) is scheduled to start for the Indians.

Spokane will return home Thursday for a three-game series with Boise.

The Volcanoes traveled home for a five-game set with Yakima.

Notes

Left-handed pitcher Clint Brannon of Arkansas is set to join the Indians on Sunday in Everett. Brannon was selected in the 34th round of this year’s amateur draft… . The Tri-Cities Dust Devils announced the completion of the sale of their NWL team to Brett Sports and Entertainment. The Brett family, owners of the Indians, purchased the club from Portland Family Entertainment for a reported $2 million. The sale, first reported in March, had been held up while the previous owner paid off creditors. “We are relieved to have all the paperwork behind us and are excited to get to work,” said Andy Billig, vice president and co-owner of Brett Sports and Entertainment.