Cougars book first win in Spokane JL campaign

Whitman Cougars Monday night defeated Asotin 5-4 with a run in the bottom of an extra eighth inning to break through for their first league win of the year. The Cougs scored the winning run with Ryan Bumstead tagging the RBI single to break a 4-4 tie.

Steven Maley led off the inning with a walk, and Ryan Maley moved him over with a sacrifice bunt in front of Bumstead’s single.

The Cougars tied it at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth when Patrick Jacobs tagged a double behind singles by Justin Cillay and Zach Druffel and a fielders choice grounder by Tyler Nestegard.

Druffel and Jacobs threw the win for the Cougars.

Whitman booked nine hits and overcame three errors.

Asotin came back for a 6-0 shutout in the second game at Pullman Monday. Bumstead had the lone Cougar hit off Asotin’s Aaron Trimmel who struck out six Cougar batters.

Jacobs and John Buscher pitched for the Cougars. Asotin totaled seven hits.

The Cougars have seven more league games on the schedule with two games Wednesday at Medical Lake and one against Central Valley at McDonald Field tonight, Thursday.

Monday’s league breakthrough followed a 1-4 run by the Whitman Club in the Junior Legion version of the Palouse Summer Series over the weekend.

Thursday, the Cougs started with a 7-4 win over a Cannons team from the Seattle area. Will Dedic pitched into the sixth inning and Tyler Nestegard finished it.

The Cougs scored three runs in the sixth to break a 3-3 tie with the Cannons allowing four walks and Nestegard tagging a key single.

The Cougars sustained three big losses in a Friday to forget.

Langley defeated them 15-3 in the opener. They scored eight runs in the first inning, all unearned with two out. They came back to score seven more in the next inning.

John Busher shut down the Langley offense over the last three innings, but islanders had all the marbles before that.

Second round Friday was a 6-14 loss to Sockeye, a team from the Monroe-Sultan area of Highway 2. The Cougars led 4-0 after the second inning with Bumstead, Steven Maley and John Mellor tagging doubles and Cillay and Dedic hitting singles.

The Cougs moved to a 6-5 lead in the top of the fourth, but Sockeye scored eight runs in the bottom of the frame to decide it.

Third cruncher Friday was a 19-3 loss at the hands of the Richland Knights who scored nine runs in the first inning.

Jamie Bledsoe had the rough start on the mound for the Cougs, but he came back for RBI hits in the first and third innings. Cilley doubled in a run for the Cougars in the fourth.

Stephen McAleer, Joihn Buscher and Bumstead all pitched. Richland finished with 15 hits.

Last round in the series was a 1-9 loss to the Kennewick Dusters who scored seven runs in the fourth inning to break up a 2-1 game. Four hits and three walks fueled the Duster rally.