COLUMBIA GORGE Hustler players take a knee to listen to coaches give a postgame speech Monday night versus Yakima, Wash. at Quinton Street Ballpark. The AAA team kicked off the regular season witha nine-inning game versus the Beetles in an American Legion contest, with Yakima scoring a 16-13 victory.
COLUMBIA GORGE Hustler players take a knee to listen to coaches give a postgame speech Monday night versus Yakima, Wash. at Quinton Street Ballpark. The AAA team kicked off the regular season witha nine-inning game versus the Beetles in an American Legion contest, with Yakima scoring a 16-13 victory.
The Columbia Gorge AAA Hustlers kicked off the regular season with a home contest versus Yakima, Wash. and came up short of pulling off a late rally in a 16-13 loss Monday at Quinton Street Ballpark in The Dalles.
“It was a battle all the way through. The only difference was we had four errors and they only had one or two,” said Hustler outfielder Eli Holeman. “We hit the ball really well and we played pretty well, but it was kind of an experimental game since it was our first game of the season, so we were just seeing what we had out here. We just need better pitching and fewer errors and we will come out on top.”
Down 16-10 in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Hustlers made things interesting against Yakima reliever Jamer Trudeau.
With one out, Dawson Hoffman and Chris Trunkey hit back-to-back singles to put two runners on.
One out later, Eli Holeman roped a two-run double to left field to score Hoffman and Trunkey to make it a 16-12 contest.
J.C. Cline then swatted an RBI double to the right field wall to plate Holeman to inch the Hustlers to within a 16-13 deficit.
With the tying run in the on-deck circle, Trudeau was able to settle down and retire the final out on a grounder to shortstop to end the threat.
The Hustlers had the early lead at 2-0 after one inning and 5-2 after three, but Yakima tied the score at 5-all in the fourth inning and regained the lead at 7-5 entering the bottom of the fifth.
Payton Eaton drove in Colin Noonan with an RBI single, and Ross Kohl had a bases-loaded walk to plate Holeman to tie the score at 7-all.
However, the Hustlers left the bases loaded, and the Beetles made CG pay in the top of the sixth inning with eight runs on five hits, four walks, an error and five wild pitches to move ahead 15-7.
The Hustlers added three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, but left the bases loaded without any further damage, but crept to a 15-10 deficit.
Yakima would then add an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning to swell the lead to 16-10.
Trunkey, out of Goldendale, Wash., paced the Hustler offense with a 4 for 6 effort and two runs scored.
Holeman had two hits, drove in two runs and scored four times, and Eaton went 2 for 5 with three RBIs, for the Hustlers who had 16 hits, received five walks and had two batters hit by a pitch.
Kellen Mathisen had two hits and two RBIs, Hoffman went 2 for 5 with a run scored and two RBIs, and Cline notched two hits, scored a run and had an RBI.
“They competed well,” said first-year CG Hustler coach Matt Eby. “We scored in almost every inning. We had a couple of hard hit balls hit right at them, which ended some innings early. I like what we showed overall though, so this is something to build on.”
Columbia Gorge stranded 10 base runners overall, seven in scoring position, and had two runners throw out on the base paths.
In the fifth and seventh innings, CG left the bases loaded.
On the mound, Colton Walker, Boston Bate, Eaton, Cline, Tyler Westin and Dawson Hoffman, combined to allow 13 hits, walked 12 batters and struck out six.
“Tonight, we had a lot of free passes and hit batters, so we have to cut those down,” said CG Hustler pitching coach Connor Mathisen. “We are going to focus on throwing strikes and hitting spots. One of the big things I saw is that when we got ahead of batters, we were able to get outs quickly. We have to limit the free passes and get the ball in the zone.”
Up next, the Hustlers (0-1 overall) host the Richland, Wash. Knights at 5:30 p.m. Thursday for two games.
At noon Saturday, CG hosts Alpenrose for two league games.
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