QUINCY — The Quincy Jackrabbits (6-9) battled against a Central Washington Athletic Conference rival, the Ephrata Tigers (3-15), Tuesday evening in the first of their two Battle of the Basin games this season. The Jacks came out victorious on their home field with a 3-2 win over the Tigers. 

“We did what we needed to do,” said Jacks Head Coach David Garza. “We were able to make plays that kind of slowed everything down for Ephrata. There were a couple mental errors on both sides, but we were able to take advantage of their mistakes and capitalize.” 

The Jacks were the first on the board as they scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning after Jaxon Porter walked and Rocko Reyes hit a sacrifice fly, each scoring one run. The Tigers struggled to get things going as they went scoreless in the first three innings.

In the top of the fourth inning, Ephrata scored their first run of the game with a run from Clayton Wolther. Quincy maintained their lead in the bottom of the fourth after Caleb Kukes scored a run. 

Both teams went scoreless in the fifth inning, but the Tigers claimed one more run in the top of the sixth to make it a one-score game. The Jacks went scoreless in the bottom of the sixth but held things down defensively in the second to allow no runs and claim the victory. 

Ashton Barnes-Keller earned the victory for the Jacks, ringing up 11 strikeouts against the Tigers while giving up five hits, two runs and one walk over all seven innings. Kai Kaleohano started on the mound for the Tigers where he threw one strike out followed by Wolther, who pitched five innings in relief striking out 10. 

“For a majority of the game, everything was leaning towards our way,” said Garza. “Ashton Barnes-Keller again had a great game pitching all the way around, getting outs when we needed to. Defensively there were some things that we will still need to clean up.” 

He said that every play that isn’t made on defense adds more pitching, which creates different scenarios that can completely change momentum in a game. This was shown early in the game as the Jacks capitalized on plays in the first inning to gain their 2-0 lead. 

“That’s something that I communicate with my players too is don’t let go of the throttle,” said the Jacks coach. “When the team is rolling, every little advantage we’ve got to take an opportunity to find a way to score a run.” 

Staying aggressive throughout each of their coming matchups is something that Garza said will be integral as Quincy gets prepared for the upcoming postseason play. As the team makes their way through the rest of the regular season, he also wants to see the players continue developing their cohesiveness with one another. 

“The end goal is, find success within that game and making sure that communication gets dialed in,” he said. “It’s really easy in this sport to be emotional, every pitch, every play, there’s so many opportunities to fail, but it’s teaching these young men that with every single opportunity also comes an opportunity for success.” 

Tigers Head Coach David Tempel said even though Ephrata didn’t come out and execute exactly how they wanted to early on, he was proud of how the team worked their way back into the game with each passing inning. 

“It’s a tough game and a rivalry game. You had two teams scratching and clawing and in those rivalry games, the records don’t really matter,” said Tempel. “It’s about going out there and playing against your rivals. 

The Tigers coach said overall the team played a clean game defensively and it just came down to a couple miscues that changed the outcome of the game. This game showed the players the fine line it takes between success and coming up short as they had solid pitching in the second half of the game and batted well against a tough Quincy batter. 

“Close games you learn more about who you are and what you’ve got as a team comparted to sometimes when you’re on either side of a more lopsided game,” he said. “There was a lot of good from (Tuesday) that here in this last week of the regular season, we want to be able to build on.” 

With about a week’s break between games for Ephrata, Tempel said at practice he wants the team to work on getting better selection at the plate and staying persistent in playing solid defense. During their bye week, the Tigers will also be hosting a youth camp for a couple days as the players work toward building the next generation of baseball players. 

“That’ll be a great opportunity for our guys to work with that next generation of ball players coming through Ephrata, which I think is another important piece,” said the Tigers coach. “You’re playing baseball for your high school, but at the same time you’ve got community members and little kids that look up to you and this is a great chance for them to continue to be those positive role models that we need in our community.” 

Quincy remains at home for a doubleheader against Selah Saturday with the first game starting at 11 a.m. The Jacks and Tigers will have a Battle of the Basin rematch Tuesday in Ephrata at 4:30 p.m. 

BOX SCORE 

EPHT: 0-0-0-1-0-1-0: 2 

QNCY: 2-0-0-1-0-0-x: 3 

    Tigers player Grayson Webb gets ready to throw the ball back to first base during a game earlier in the season.
  

    Ephrata’s Clayton Wolther prepares for the oncoming pitch earlier this season.
  

    Caleb Kukes from Quincy gets ready to take a swing at the ball during a game that took place earlier in the year.