Friday, Aug. 14, 2009

Dust Devils blank Bears

HERALD NEWS SERVICES

YAKIMA -- Coming off 13 shutout innings the previous night and two innings into a scoreless game, the Tri-City Dust Devils seemed well on their way Thursday night to possibly matching a 25-inning drought they recently ended.

Just in time, though, the Northwest League East Division leaders broke out their big bats to avoid taking a big loss.

Tim Wheeler tripled in a run in the third inning and Kent Matthes slugged his second home run of the summer to lead the Dust Devils to a 3-0 shutout of the Yakima Bears at County Stadium.

The offensive outburst was well timed, as Tri-City (31-22) was held without a hit over the final five innings.

The Dust Devils took two of three off the Bears (19-34), with both wins coming via shutouts, and will complete their eight-game road trip with five games in Vancouver, starting at 7:05 p.m. today.

Dust Devils starter Josh Hungerman (1-0) got the win via five four-hit, four-strikeout innings. Charles Ruiz worked a one-hit ninth for his Northwest League-leading 13th save in 14 chances.

"He's been pretty much automatic in those situations," said Tri-City manager Fred Ocasio, whose team had lost three of four. "We've stuggled some with our offense lately. Early in the season we were scoring a lot of runs, but every team hits a flat spot at some time during a season.

"With our pitching, though, we feel like we'll be in every game."

The Dust Devils were coming off their third shutout in four games. While Tri-City entered Thursday's contest ranked seventh among the eight NWL teams in batting average (.257 to No. 8 Yakima's .254), its pitching staff was second in ERA (3.78) to Salem-Keizer.

Joey Wong got things going in the third inning with a one-out single before Wheeler smacked his second triple.

In the fourth, Bo Bowman led off with a double, followed by Matthes' wind-blown, opposite-field homer that carried just inside the right-field foul pole.

The Bears managed but six singles off four Tri-City pitchers -- with two of Brent Greer's three base hits of the infield variety.

Compounding the Bears' offensive struggles was the exit of Clayton Conner, who led the league in homers (nine) and RBIs (39) before being called up to South Bend after Sunday's game with Boise.