Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009

Oregon State star helps Dust Devils improve to 5-0

By Jack Millikin, Herald staff writer

PASCO -- Talk about taking one for the team.

Joey Wong, the Tri-City shortstop, was not having a very good night Wednesday at Gesa Stadium heading into his final at-bat in the bottom of the ninth.

Wong was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, but the bases were loaded with two outs and he had a chance to redeem himself in a 1-1 tie with Vancouver.

Wong, a former College World Series hero at Oregon State, stood his ground on a first-pitch fastball inside from Canadians right-hander Bo Schultz, taking the pitch in the right thigh to force in the winning run for a 2-1 victory.

"After my third strikeout, I was saying, 'Lord, please give me another chance,' " said Wong, who was named to the all-CWS team as a freshman in 2007 after the Beavers won their second straight national title.

"Coming up in the ninth I was thinking He might be listening, but I didn't have being hit by a pitch in mind," Wong joked. "I tried to get out over the plate. I might have held on a little, but (Schultz) didn't give me a chance to get out of the way."

The win was Tri-City's fifth in a row to start the season, as the Dust Devils' continued their best start in the nine-year history of the franchise.

"It was an ugly game. We made too many mistakes," said Dust Devils manager Fred Ocasio. "We got lucky with this one. We tried to give it away, but they didn't want it, either."

The game began as a pitcher's duel, as Vancouver starter Chad Lee and Tri-City's Rob Scahill did not allow a hit between them through the first three innings.

Scahill, the Rockies' eighth-round draft pick out of Bradley, retired all nine batters he faced, including a strikeout of Connor Crumbliss in his very first professional showdown. Scahill, a right-hander, finished with four strikeouts before leaving the game because of a pitch count.

"I couldn't have hoped for a better first start," Scahill said. "I knew I would be on a short leash. I felt in control on every batter. There were two guys I went 2-0 against, but I got them to ground out."

Wes Musick followed Scahill for the Dust Devils in a piggy-back start. Musick, a ninth-rounder out of Houston, didn't look quite so comfortable. Musick allowed an unearned run on two hits in 2 1/3 innings while walking two batters, but he appeared to settle down after giving up a run in the fourth inning.

"Musick overthrew a little, but he handled better in the next inning," Ocasio said.

Tri-City relievers Rod Scurry and Eric Federico combined for 2 2/3 scoreless innings, and Federico picked up his first pro win. Scurry has yet to allow an earned run this season in 4 1/3 innings.

Bowman, who returned to the Dust Devils after starting here in 2008, is on a hitting tear. The 6-2 left-hander went 3-for-4 to raise his average to .667. He also drove in Tri-City's first run on a sixth-inning RBI single to center and scored the winning run in the ninth.

"This is one of the best teams I've been on with the Rockies," said Bowman, who started his career at Casper (Wyo.) in 2007 and began this season at Asheville (N.C.) "(In the ninth inning) everybody was just saying, 'Hit a walk-off.' "

But when Bowman reached third with a chance to win just 90 feet away, he had a message for Ocasio.

"I told Freddie, 'This guy (Wong) is a player.' "