Game with Spokane Gets Away Late from Tri-City
June 24, 2023 - Northwest League (NWL)
Tri-City Dust Devils News Release
Tri-City Dust Devils' Arol Vera on game night
(Tri-City Dust Devils, Credit: James Snook/Spokane Indians)
A close contest between the Tri-City Dust Devils (0-1 Second Half) and the Spokane Indians (1-0 Second Half) midway through got away from the visitors Friday night at Avista Stadium, where Spokane sprinted away with an 11-2 win to open the Northwest League Second Half for both teams.
Tri-City shuffled its rotation before the game, giving the starting nod to right-hander Michael Darrell-Hicks (0-1) for his High-A debut. The righty from Bowling Green, Kentucky weathered some early jitters in the bottom of the 1st inning to hold the Indians to one run and leave the bases loaded. Darrell-Hicks then proceeded to strike out the side in the 2nd inning, for a total of four straight Ks to settle things down.
The Dust Devils would get the bats going in the top of the 3rd. CF D'Shawn Knowles tied the game at 1-1 by crushing his first homer of 2023 over the right field caboose and off the premises into the parking lot. After DH Joe Stewart reached on an infield error, SS Arol Vera brought him home with an RBI single to give Tri-City a 2-1 lead. Spokane brought the game back even in the bottom of the frame on a solo home run by RF Jordan Beck, his league-leading 18th of the season, and it remained 2-2 to the 5th inning.
There the Indians grabbed the lead with a two-out rally. Beck walked, LF Zach Kokoska tripled to right-center and SS Nic Kent doubled the same way, plating two runs for a 4-2 lead and knocking Darrell-Hicks out of the game. Despite the loss, Darrell-Hicks collected a professional career-high of eight strikeouts on the night in 4.2 innings of work.
Spokane played add-on in the 6th and 8th innings, scoring five runs and batting around in the former and adding a 2-run homer by Kokoska in the latter. That gave plenty of breathing room for reliever Evan Shawver (1-2) and the Indians bullpen, who threw five scoreless innings of relief to cut off any chances of a comeback.
Arol Vera (3-4, 2B, RBI) and 3B Werner Blakely (2-4, 2B) had multi-hit games for the Dust Devils. C Myles Emmerson added a double, walking to join D'Shawn Knowles (HR, BB) in reaching base twice. As well, reliever Hayden Seig added two innings of scoreless relief.
Game five of the series between Tri-City and Spokane gets going with a 5:09 p.m. first pitch at Avista Stadium. Right-hander Bryce Osmond (1-6, 5.00 ERA) is scheduled to start for the Dust Devils, and righty Victor Juarez (4-3, 6.28 ERA) the same for the Indians.
Broadcast coverage begins with the pregame show at 4:50 p.m. both here and at the MiLB First Pitch app.
Tickets for the Dust Devils' next home series, June 28-July 3 against the Hillsboro Hops, are on sale now, with special ticket rates available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit dustdevilsbaseball.com, call the team office at (509) 544-8789, or visit the team office (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on game nights, or Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. otherwise).
Images from this story
 Tri-City Dust Devils' Arol Vera on game night (James Snook/Spokane Indians) |
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