Print
Email Story
The Northwest League season is just past the halfway point, but this much is clear: The two teams battling in the 40th game of a 76-game slate at Gesa Stadium have the inside track to the NWL championship series.
If the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and Tri-City Dust Devils -- which both lead their respective divisions by at least five games -- do meet to decide the league title in September, it won't necessarily come down to towering drives or overpowering arms.
It will be about the little things.
The Volcanoes took care of them in a 9-5 victory Thursday as they increased their West Division lead over Everett to five games. Salem-Keizer, which won NWL titles in 2006 and 2007 and lost last year's championship to Spokane, took advantage of three Tri-City errors and a few fundamental lapses to win its second straight over the Dust Devils.
"It slipped away from us because we were pitching up in the zone and defensively we made some mistakes," said Tri-City manager Fred Ocasio. "Any loss bothers me because I hate losing."
The Dust Devils (24-16) watched their lead in the East dwindle to 61/2 games after Boise (17-22) beat Vancouver 12-9.
"We knew this was a big series. At our place, we squeezed out two wins with walk-off hits," said Daniel Cook, who led the Volcanoes with two hits, two runs and two RBIs. His two-run single to center in the top of the sixth pushed S-K's lead to 6-2.
"It's about people getting timely hits," he said of the Volcanoes matchup against Tri-City. "The first night (a 2-1 Dust Devils' win) they really answered the call."
Bo Bowman went 2-for-4 with three RBIs -- including a two-run single in the first inning to give the Dust Devils a 2-0 lead. Bowman is tied for the NWL lead with seven home runs and moved into fifth place with his 30th RBI on Thursday.
"We had momentum on our side," he said. "Their pitcher (starter Javier Hernandez) didn't have anything overpowering. We should have taken advantage of that."
But after allowing three hits to the first four batters he faced in the first, Hernandez (4-2) settled down, retiring 13 of the next 14 batters while the Volcanoes' offense scored eight runs through the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to back him up. He left with two outs in the sixth after giving up three more runs, including another RBI single from Bowman and an RBI triple from Ben Paulsen to cut the lead to 8-5.
Two Tri-City errors inthe fifth and sixth innings opened the door for Salem-Keizer.
After a leadoff single by Evan Crawford in the fifth, second baseman Jeremiah Sammy booted a potential double-play grounder that dribbled into centerfield while Crawford scooted to third base. Crawford would score to make it 3-2 Volcanoes when Chris Dominguez grounded into a double play.
In the top of S-K's five-run sixth inning, first baseman Paulsen dropped a throw from Sammy that would have completed an inning-ending double play. Instead, the error on Paulsen allowed Cook to score the fifth run of the inning.
Bowman is confident the the Dust Devils will meet the Volcanoes in the NWL championship, but he was also at a loss to explain the team's fourth loss in its last five games.
"There's no doubt in my mind (we'll meet them). They're a very strong team, and so are we when we're clicking on all cylinders," Bowman said. "I'm not sure what it is."
Tri-City starter Rob Scahill allowed two runs on five hits in four innings, striking out seven batters. Craig Bennigson (3-3), the NWL pitcher of the week earlier this month, took the loss after giving up five runs -- four earned -- on three hits in 11/3 innings.
