April 3, 2017

Greyhounds make most of mistakes in GNL sweep

Clarkston's miscues costly as Pullman takes league baseball doubleheader 9-2, 11-7

Because inclement weather on the Palouse has limited Pullman's time on the diamond, the Hounds would have had a legitimate explanation had they committed uncharacteristic fielding errors during Saturday's prep baseball doubleheader.

Clarkston can't make that excuse.

The miscues by the Bantam defense were the type Pullman coach Lance Lincoln is pleased his team didn't commit, and the type Clarkston coach Bruce Bensching would like to forget his club did.

There were eight in total, and Pullman combined those with a strong performance at the plate and a pair of quality starts on the mound to sweep their Great Northern League foe at Washington State's Bailey-Brayton Field. The scores were 9-2 and 11-7.

"A lot of the fields we play on are a lot smaller than this one is and we just had a hard time adjusting to it," said Bensching, whose team dropped to 3-3 overall, 2-2 in GNL play.

Jake Cillay had four hits and three RBI for the Hounds (2-1, 2-0), who hadn't played since losing to Deer Park on March 14 in their season opener.

"It's kind of the start to our season even though we should be halfway done," Cillay said. "Clarkston is a really good team and it was just great to beat them."

Twice Cillay scored on singles due to extra-base errors in the Bantam outfield. In game one, Jared Hill missed Cillay's line drive to left field, and as the ball rolled to the wall, the senior came around for the Hounds' second run, bringing to the score to 2-1 in the first. Pullman added four more runs in the second, then never looked back once it took a 6-1 lead.

In the second game, Cillay singled to right, but the ball rolled under the glove of Nate Savolainen and he came around to give his team a 5-2 lead in the fifth. Later in the frame, Jacob Wells' single to center rolled by Justin Smith, an error that cleared the bases, scored Wells and boosted Pullman's lead to 10-2.

"Just guys coming up too early and the ball goes right underneath (their glove)," Bensching said. "Just one of those days you take a few good things away and flush the other stuff away and don't worry about it. Nothing you can do about it now."

To that point, Pullman had to work for most of its runs against Clarkston's AJ Davis, who allowed three runs on four hits through four innings prior to that complete unraveling in the fifth. Davis' day darkened when he gave up three straight extra-base hits in the third, breaking a scoreless tie that put his team in a 3-0 hole.

Clarkston had a five-run rally in the sixth to cut the lead to 10-7, but Pullman countered with a run in the bottom of the inning and Jeff Marlow picked up the save with a scoreless seventh.

"These guys responded pretty well," Lincoln said. "They didn't panic and just kept pushing ahead."

Wells fired five strikeouts in 52/3 innings in Game 2, a quality follow-up to the performance Mike Peterson delivered in the opener, fanning 11 batters against two walks and two hits in six innings.

"Playing with him for four years, I just know that when Mike is up, you got to be ready, but he's going to get most of the work done for us," Cillay said.

Peterson was also 3-for-5 with three walks on the day. Griffin Bashaw had a three-hit day as well, all on triples.

"The kids hit the ball pretty hard today. That's pretty encouraging," Lincoln said. "That's one thing we can do a lot when we're indoors."

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Pacing the Bantams at the plate was Davis, who went 3-for-6.

FIRST GAME

Clarkston 101 000 0-2 3 4

Pullman 242 010 x-9 8 2

Peterson, Kallaher (7) and Utzman. Garrett, Sly (2) and Buckner and Fisher.

Clarkston hits - Davis 2 (2B), Ellibee (3B).

Pullman hits - Walker, Kinkade, Cillay 2 (3B), Bashaw (3B), Peterson 2, Wilson.

SECOND GAME

Clarkston 000 205 0- 7 7 4