Pickles Crack Bend’s Pearl in the 8th to Dodge Sweep
Tucker Grote provided a stellar six innning start but failed to receive bullpen support in the Elks’ loss to the Pickles in the series finale. (Andrew Green)
Portland, OR - The Bend Elks failed to complete the sweep of the Portland Pickles, who rallied for all four of its runs in the eighth inning to earn the 4-2 victory and snap the Elks' four-game win streak.
The sides squared off in a pitching duel for the majority of the game, with each side holding the other scoreless for seven innings. Tucker Grote tossed a beauty of a start going six shutout innings and giving up just three hits with five strikeouts countered by no walks; Seattle University right-hander followed suit retiring all three batters he faced, including two strikeouts in his Elks debut.
Bend then called upon Mahiro Tomita to close it out. Coming off his last outing, in which he retired 10 of the 11 batters he faced in a thrilling extra-inning win for the Elks vs. Yakima Valley, it appeared that Tomita would be the perfect man for the task. Unfortunately for Bend, Mahiro wasn't the hero this time as he would walk the Elks' first two batters of the game and plunk another, giving up three earned runs in just a third of an inning on the bump.
Jackson Peters would finish the final ⅔ of the inning but would fork over a run himself on a wild pitch that allowed Luke Bard to come across. In all, the Elks staff surrendered its most hits and runs to the Pickles in the series.
Yet the loss shouldn't all fall on the bullpen's collapse. Bend's bats were equally at fault for failing to score a run until the game's final frame. Through the first seven innings, the Elks reached base just seven times while striking out six times against Pickles pitchers Jesse Alfaro and Jared Villalobos.
Bend found some momentum to work with in the top of the ninth by way of a leadoff homer by Luca Dipaolo, who poked one over the short porch in right for his second long ball of the summer. Elijah Jackson built off that with an RBI double off the wall to cut the deficit in half and make it a two-run ball game. Nevertheless, the rally would fall short after that for the Elks, whose sweep aspirations will have to wait for a different series on a different day.
Bend (17-17, 14-16) gets the day off Monday to regroup ahead of a crucial inter-division series against the Cowlitz Black Bears (16-16). The Black Bear are coming off a series win against the six-time defending West Coast League Champion Corvallis Knights and are one game up on the Elks in the WCL South standings. Game one first pitch is at 6:35 p.m. from Vince Genna Stadium.
