Cruiser comeback falls short

After being shutout 5-0 in their previous game, the Cruisers were looking for a little pay back as they hosted the first place White River Hornets last week.

Starter Collin Blake got the nod on the mound for the Cruisers. Blake cruised through the first four innings only allowing one run on two hits.

With the ball game tied at 1-1, the Hornets got to Blake in the fifth inning. After walking the leadoff batter, the next two Hornet batters drove in runs, to take the lead for good. Jarod Humphrey came in with one out in the inning to shut down the White River rally.

Humphrey struggled a bit to start the sixth inning. After a leadoff walk, he got the next batter to ground out to the shortstop before walking the next batter. With runners on first and second, Coach Mike Moeller decided to make the call to the bullpen and brought in right hander Jacob Lucht. Lucht got both batters he faced to fly out to right field to end the inning.

Zach Smith came in to work the seventh inning in relief. The Hornets hit the hard throwing right-hander well. The first three batters he faced came aboard on a couple of singles and an error. White River scored two of those base runners to take a 5-1 lead into the bottom of the final inning.

Eatonville got their first three batters on base with a couple of singles and an error. With the bases loaded, starting pitcher Collin Blake re-entered the game to bat and drew a walk to push in the Cruisers second run. On the next at bat, Zach Smith hit into fielder’s choice that scored their third run. Andrew Wiklund ground out to the shortstop and the fourth and final run of the game for the Cruisers scored.  Jarod Humphrey flew out to the center fielder to end the game and take the loss, 5-4.

Collin Blake picked up the loss as the Cruisers fell to 3-4 in league play and 6-6 overall.

Next up for the Cruisers will be a couple of league games against Franklin Pierce before traveling to Yakima to take on the East Valley Red Devils in a non-league game.

Summary – White River 5 Eatonville 4 LP: C. Blake (4.1IP, 3R, 4H, 5BB, 5K, 2HBP) C. Jumper 2-3, 2R / J. Lucht 1-3, 1R / Z. Smith 1-4, 3B, 2RBI / A. Wiklund 1-4, 1RBI / S. Sarpy 0-1, 1R