Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009

Bowman powers Devils past Bears

By Jack Millikin, Herald staff writer

No question about it, Bo Bowman misses the unmistakeable rush of drilling the ball out of a ballpark.

It's been about a month since his last home run -- he hit his seventh on July 27, which put him into a tie for the North-west League home run leaders at the time.

The league homer lead is well behind him -- he's now tied for eighth -- but the Tri-City Dust Devils are thankful that Bowman hasn't lost his penchant for driving in runs.

The 6-foot-1 left-hander went 3-for-4 with three RBIs on Tuesday at Gesa Stadium to lift the Dust Devils to a 6-2 win over the Yakima Bears. Bowman doubled and scored in the second to give Tri-City a 1-0 lead, drove a two-run triple to right-center in the fifth to make it 5-1 and finished the night with an RBI single in the seventh to cap the scoring at 6-2.

"I would have liked to get a home run," Bowman said, smiling after collecting two of Tri-City's six extra base hits on the night. Bowman's average dipped below .300 in August after a hot July, but the Louisiana-Monroe product has found his rhythm once again, going 8-for-14 (.571) with seven RBIs and four runs scored in the last four games.

"What it comes down to is you know you're the only one who can do it," he said. "The pitcher has to get you out."

Joseph Sanders added two hits -- both doubles -- including a two-run double in the second to give Tri-City a 3-0 lead.

The Dust Devils (38-26) won their fourth straight home game, moving 12 games over .500 and knocking their magic number over Spokane (31-33) to six games after the Indians topped Boise (30-34) at Avista Stadium, 6-4. Tri-City leads Spokane by seven games with 12 to play and leads the Hawks by eight games.

"We've been pretty good at home, which is good, because we've been getting a lot of wins on the road," said Dust Devils manager Fred Ocasio. "Bowman continues to swing the bat for us. He's coming up big."

Tri-City starter Dan Perkins (3-2) picked up his first win since July 13. Despite allowing the lead runner to reach base in each of his six innings, Perkins allowed just two runs on seven hits before Erik Stavert replaced him in the seventh. Stavert, a seventh-round draft pick out of Oregon making his first appearance, walked one batter and hit another before striking out the side.

"I felt good with all my pitches," said Perkins, who ranks third among NWL starters with a 2.69 ERA. "We're playing our best ball and putting it all together. We have to keep putting pressure on other teams, forcing them to make plays."

Chris Odegaard (1-7) took his league-leading seventh loss after allowing five runs -- three earned -- on five hits in five innings.

-- Yakima C Tyson Van Winkle, a 10th-round pick out of Gonzaga, threw out Kevin Clark trying to steal second base in the second, then picked Joey Wong off second in the fifth, throwing a bullet across the diamond for the first out of the inning. ... LHP Kyle Walker will leave the Dust Devils for the remainder of the season to return to school at the University of Texas.