Starter Connor Staine strikes out 10 over six scoreless; Spokane Indians fall to Tri-City 3-0 in 10 innings

From staff reports

Tri-City and Spokane combined for zero runs and just nine hits through nine innings Thursday.

Visiting Tri-City woke up in the 10th – and benefited from a couple of fortunate breaks.

Tri-City rallied for three runs in the 10th inning and the Spokane Indians fell to the Dust Devils 3-0 in a Northwest League game at Avista Stadium.

The Indians (35-22 second half) put runners at second base with less than two outs in each of the first three innings to no avail and the teams traded zeros in a fast-paced game.

Spokane’s Charlie Condon led off the bottom of the ninth and was hit by a pitch from reliever Jose Fermin in his second inning of work. Kyle Karros struck out, then Jose Cordova’s hard grounder was fielded by Caleb Ketchup, who turned it into a 4-6-3 double play to keep it scoreless.

With the automatic runner at second to start the 10th, T-C’s Shane Matheny singled on a sharp ground ball off lefty reliever Welinton Herrera (3-2) to center to score Adrian Placencia for the game’s first run. With one out, Herrera was called for a balk to move Matheny up a base.

Werner Blakely followed with a grounder to first that took a bad hop over the head of first baseman Skyler Messenger for a run-scoring double to make it 2-0. With two down, Peter Burns hit a hard grounder just inside the bag at third that went for a double to give the Dust Devils (24-33) a three-run lead.

Indians starter Connor Staine went six scoreless innings and allowed three hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts.

The series continues Friday at 6:35 p.m.