EPHRATA — The Ephrata Tiger Baseball Club (5-1) earned a pair of victories over the Tri-Cities Badgers 17U team Tuesday evening. Despite a slow start, Tigers Head Coach David Tempel said he was proud of how the team rallied to overcome their opponent. 

“Anytime you can come away with a couple of wins, it’s always a good night,” said Coach Tempel. “Tri-Cities Prep is always a pretty good ball club, and we were happy to execute when we did.” 

The Tigers fell behind in the first game as the Badgers scored two in the first inning, one in the second and two in the third. Over the course of these three innings, the Tigers were held scoreless.

Things began to turn around in the bottom of the fourth as Ryan Tempel singled on a hard ground ball to score Caleb Froewiss. Cale Fronsman then singled to score both Mitchell Johnson and Clayton Wolther, putting the score at 3-5. 

Ephrata gained the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning when Isaiah Davis scored on a steal of home, Johnson doubled to score Froewiss and Wolther singled to score Johnson. From there the Tigers held strong to earn the 6-5 victory over Tri-Cities in game one. 

Fronsman was the first on the mound for the Tigers as he pitched for 2.1 innings and allowed four hits and five runs, while throwing a strikeout. Wolther filled in to pitch the remaining innings where he allowed just one hit and zero runs with nine strikeouts.  

“First game we started out a little slow, but got three in the fourth, three in the fifth and were able to hold on,” said Coach Tempel. 

In game two, the Badgers were once again first on the board with a single run in the top of the second. The Tigers quickly turned the game around in the bottom of the inning with Elijah St. Mary singling for two runs. Two errors scored two runs and a double from Wolther scored two runs to put the game at 6-1. 

Andrew Rowlands from the Tigers extended the team lead in the bottom of the third after singling to score two runs. Both teams earned a run in the fifth inning as Klaus maintained the Ephrata lead after scoring on an error to give the Tigers a 9-2 victory over Tri-Cities. 

Davis earned the victory in game two as he gave up six hits and two runs over five innings while striking out four. Tempel threw two innings of relief to close out the game where he gave up one hit and struck out one. 

“Just a really good opportunity for us to play against a premier opponent,” said Coach Tempel. “The guys executed (Tuesday).” 

One highlight from the evening was the pitching from each of the four Tigers that stepped onto the mound. As time went on over the course of the two innings, the coach said each pitcher and the defense behind them settled into the games and made fewer errors each inning. 

With the summer season allowing less time to practice as players have other commitments, Coach Tempel said the goal of reaching this level of pitching comes from consistency. 

“We don’t have to put a ton of volume in between games,” he said. “But we do have the intentionality of making sure that we’re at least discussing and feeling some of those mechanics pieces or delivery pieces to help the guys be more confident and more comfortable when they’re up there.” 

With these victories, the Tigers are tied for fourth place with Naches Valley in the early season of the Tillage League. As the team moves forward with their summer season, Coach Tempel said he wants the team to come into games with higher energy. 

Alongside this, the coach said he was very pleased with how the Tigers built up their energy as the game went on. Despite being down early in the first game, the players held strong and rallied to take two victories, which the coach attributes to the players doing the little things to put the ball in play and being aggressive early in counts. 

“Proud of the guys,” said Coach Tempel. “Proud of how they’ve been working and looking forward to continuing that growth.” 

The Tigers Baseball Club will remain at home Friday to face the Cascade Kodiaks in a doubleheader with the first game starting at 5 p.m. 

BOX SCORES 

GAME ONE:  

TRIC: 2-1-2-0-0-0-0: 5 

EPHT: 0-0-0-3-3-0-x: 6 

GAME TWO:  

TRIC: 0-1-0-0-1-0-0: 2 

EPHT: 0-6-2-0-1-0-x: 9 

    Tigers player Cale Fronsman steps up to bat against Tri-Cities Tuesday evening.
  

    Jaxon Uribe from Ephrata gets ready to throw the ball to second base to stop the opposing runner Tuesday.
  

    Ephrata’s Caleb Froewiss stands on guard at first base next to a Tri-Cities runner Tuesday evening.
  

    Tigers Baseball Club Head Coach David Tempel talks to his players near the dugout between innings against Tri-Cities.
  

    Mitchell Johnson from Ephrata sprints toward first base after making a hit against Tri-Cities Tuesday.