Columbia Basin defeated Blue Mountain in a pair of home games and pushing their win streak to 4 games. The pitching staff allowed just 3 hits on the day in an all-around team effort.
GAME 1
Sticking to their new found sabermetrics inspired pitching rotation, CBC chose to start the bullpen and then bring in their starter. In Game 1,
Mason Hymer got the nod to open things up and he turned in a clean inning. Next up was
Jaxon Henderson striking out 2 in his inning before
Kyle Baumgardt completed the 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the Hawks got on the board with an RBI single from
Isaac Haws who eventually scored on a wild pitch on the 3-run inning.Â
Ian Hughes took over in the 4th with a 3-0 lead and was solid in his outing going 3+ and striking out 5. The big inning came in the 5th as the Hawks connected on 5 hits and walked 3 times good for 7 runs.
Alex Rodriguez and
Steven Meier each drove in two runs on the inning.
Blue Mountain scored a couple in the 7th on a miscue in center field with two outs. Reliever
Ethan Petty was able to get the final out on his first pitch of the outting helping CBC finalize the 15-3 shortened game.
GAME 2
Blue Mountain was able to keep the CBC bats in check most of game 2. The Hawks struck early with two runs in the first on a single from Meier and a sac fly from
Nick Grade.
Brady Toth and
Cameron Soliz combined for 3 innings of 1-hit baseball.
Basin scored two more in the second with two more sacs from
Brooks Rasmussen and
Payton Kallaher to give CBC the 4-0 lead.
In the 4th,
Josh Aribal took over the ship and would be untouched for 6 innings to close it out. The righty did not allow a hit while punching out 10 wolves. Blue Mountain did get a few baserunners in scoring position on walks and a HBP but Aribal was able to work around them.Â
The wins bump Columbia Basin into sole possession of 4th place ahead of Treasure and Wenatchee Valley and keeps them just 3 games back of Big Bend with 6 left to play. The Hawks will travel to Pendleton to return the double header at Blue Mountain. They will finish the regular season with a 4 game series against Walla Walla.
