August 12, 2007

Yakima soldiers past AquaSox on Military Night
By ROGER UNDERWOOD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Though not exactly the shock-and-awe display some might associate with Military Night, the camouflage jersey-wearing Bears were nonetheless soldierly.

Despite being out-hit by Everett, Yakima counter-attacked with a combination of clutch pitching, flawless defense and opportunistic offense to beat the AquaSox 7-2 before an announced gathering of 2,230 Saturday night at Yakima County Stadium.

The Bears' eighth win in 12 games secured their third successive series victory, and also moved them to within 11/2 games of new Northwest League East Division leader Spokane.

The 23-28 Indians, who downed Eugene, leapfrogged Boise (23-29) with the Hawks' loss at Salem-Keizer. Yakima, 22-30, will try to make it four of five against Everett in its series finale today.

"Four of five would be huge," said Josh Collmenter, who improved to 4-2 and dropped his earned run average to 2.70 by allowing only one run while yielding eight hits through seven innings. "The way we're playing right now -- we're hitting, we're pitching and we're playing great defense -- if we could win another one before we go to Boise (for three games), we could really put ourselves in a strong position."

Collmenter clearly did his part Saturday.

He worked out of a second-and-third, no-out jam by getting three straight popups in the sixth -- against the AquaSox' No. 2-3-4 hitters, no less. Then he escaped a second-and-third, two-out predicament with a strikeout in the seventh.

For an encore, the Bears introduced Wes Roemer for his professional debut, and the first-round draftee from Cal State-Fullerton punctuated a scoreless eighth with his first pro strikeout.

"It was amazing," the 20-year-old right-hander said. "The crowd was great, there was a lot of energy and I'm glad I got to pitch in my first game as a pro here."

Offensively, Yakima maximized its seven hits (compared with the Sox' 12), partially due to Clayton Conner's 2-for-4 night that included an RBI single and a solo homer, and partially thanks to four Everett errors.

After Everett opened the scoring with Dunigan's homer, the Bears struck twice in the bottom of the inning.

Shane Byrne's infield single and a walk to JoJo Batten were followed by an error that allowed Mark Hallberg to load the bases. Clayton Conner scored Byrne with a single to center and Batten came home on a balk.

In the sixth, Ramon Ramirez led off with a walk and took second on a passed ball, then scored on Mike Mee's single.

Two outs later, Sox second baseman Edilio Colina booted Batten's grounder. Colina caught Mee rounding third too far and threw to Davenport, who then threw to catcher Craig Hurba when Mee broke for home.

Hurba dropped the ball, however, leaving Mee safe and Batten on second. Another passed ball advanced Batten to third, and he then scored when Evan Frey beat out a broken-bat roller to second.

Conner's second homer in as many nights, an opposite-field shot to right leading off the seventh, made it 6-1.

Since returning from a groin injury six games ago, Conner has homered four times to raise his team-leading total to eight and his RB I total to 42.

Konrad Schmidt's leadoff double and a two-out throwing error by Colina capped Yakima's scoring in the eighth.

Everett got a run on three singles against Omar Arif in the ninth.

"We got another huge defensive play early," Bears manager Mike Bell said, alluding to a relay from Frey to Batten to catcher Konrad Schmidt that cut down a runner in the second -- Yakima's second such play in three nights. "We're playing well defensively, we're getting great pitching and we're still swinging the bats well. If we can continue to win series, I like our chances."