Spokane tops Central in slugfest; earns first win of season

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A combined twenty runs, six pitchers and nearly two and a half hours is all it took for the Spokane Owls to finally tally their first win for 2016 on Monday – and it didn't come a moment too soon.

After dropping its first six games of the year, Spokane (1-6) took out its frustrations on a Central (3-6) squad that had allowed its opponents to reach double digits in the scoring column in three of its previous five contests.

The Owls made sure that trend continued with a 12-8 victory on the road which lifted a significant burden off the shoulders of head coach Tom Colvin.

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“Sometimes, you just have to learn how to win,” Colvin said after the victory. “That first win, sometimes it's tough, but we got it done and hopefully that kick-starts us and gets us going on the season.”

Colvin's group wasted little time in getting things rolling – taking advantage of a less-than-stellar fielding performance by the Bulldogs to post four unearned runs in the first inning against starting pitcher Chris King.

With one out and runners on first and second in the opening frame, a ball knocked high into left field was dropped – opening up the floodgates for a big offensive inning for Spokane instead of simply acting as the second out.

A passed ball and a throwing error by King compounded the Central troubles in the first as well.

“I call it Monday baseball sometimes,” Colvin said of Central's miscues. “Everybody comes off the weekend and doesn't play as well or as sharp. In that first inning, we took advantage of some of their errors.”

The Owls refused to take their foot off the gas – being aggressive at the plate and using timely hitting over the next five innings to grab eventual leads of 8-1 and 12-4.

“We hit the ball hard,” said Colvin. “We did a good job of hitting the ball and putting it in play.”

The sizable gap on the scoreboard didn't diminish the hopes of the resilient Bulldogs, however, as Central rallied to claw within 12-8 in the bottom of the seventh, but sophomore James Hosmer grounded out to third base with the bases loaded to end the comeback effort.

While most walked out of the ballpark thinking about the valiant fight over the final innings by Central, head coach Bill Shoemaker couldn't help but think what could have been if the first inning was played just a little bit cleaner by his club.

“When you get behind like that, every inning and every at-bat, it's tough,” Shoemaker said. “The kids were fired up and all that, but from a coach's perspective, it's 'Catch the ball, catch the ball.'”

In addition to their troubles on defense, the Bulldogs were largely inefficient when batting with men on base. By the time the final out was recorded, Central stranded a grand total of 16 baserunners.

“We would get people on and we would only get a run or two here and there,” added Shoemaker. “If you can string a few [runs] together, it makes the last inning a lot easier.”

Both teams are back in action on Tuesday as Spokane travels to play SWCL foe Blue Eye, while Central welcomes in Ava.
 

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