Apple Sox 9

PIRATES 4

WENATCHEE — Heading into the second half kickoff to the West Coast League (WCL) baseball schedule, the Moses Lake Pirates came into last night’s game at Wenatchee on the doorstep of first place in the East.

Moses Lake came in hot — seven straight wins — while the host, first-place Apple Sox had struggled until two recent wins against Walla Walla.

In the end, the Apple Sox (15-11 in WCL) upped their record to 4-0 against the Pirates and built their East lead to 2.5 games with a 9-4 win over Moses Lake at Paul Thomas Stadium at Wenatchee Valley College.

The first few innings saw the teams battle it out to a 1-1 tie after the top of the fourth inning.

But a four-run outburst in the bottom half of the frame by the Apple Sox gave them the cushion the hosts would need to hold on for the victory.

Moses Lake scored its first run when Michael Bush (Lewis and Clark College) got on base after being hit by a pitch and would ultimately come around to score on a Tylor Pavel (Wenatchee Valley College) fielder’s choice.

The Pirates cut the gap to 5-2 in the top of the fifth inning when Josh Rapacz (George Fox University) singled to lead off and would score after Andrew Rodriguez (San Jose State University) and Duncan Blades (Salt Lake CC) also got one-base hits to bring him around.

The short-lived momentum was quashed in the Apple Sox’s next at-bat when they scored two more runs to bump the gap up to 7-2.

With the score 8-2 the Pirates scored again in the top of the seventh inning as Austin Shackelford (University of Utah) singled with one out and Trent Johnson was issued a two-out walk.

Bush then singled in Shackelford and Nate Roberts (Seattle University) brought home Johnson with a single of his own to make the score 8-4.

However, Wenatchee would add one more insurance run in the bottom of the seventh and kept the Pirates’ bats in check over the final two innings.

Moses Lake (16-15 overall, 12-13 in WCL) pounded out 12 hits and committed only one erros.

Shackelford, Baldes, Rodriguez, and Bush led the offense with two hits apiece.

Moses Lake High School graduate Drew Martin started on the mound for the Pirates and gave up seven runs in 4.1 innings to be tagged with the loss.