Bears win one the hard way

Yakima spots Eugene four runs, rallies to win by 6 ||

YAKIMA, Wash. — Bob Didier, who has witnessed his share of oddities during a professional baseball career presently in its 43rd season, looked up at the scoreboard and took a deep breath.

“I did not feel comfortable,” he said, “with a six-run lead.”

Not Thursday night.

Not in a game that saw the Bears surrender 15 hits, commit three errors, leave the bases loaded three times and still live to celebrate a 12-6 conquest of Eugene in Yakima County Stadium.

An announced crowd of 2,053 saw some computer-clogging numbers posted — the teams combined for 31 hits, 10 walks and 23 stranded baserunners — but, like Didier, readily accepted Yakima’s fourth consecutive win.

The Bears (4-2) have trailed in each of their triumphs, but nonetheless secured this five-game series with two installments left.

This time they spotted the Emeralds (1-5) a 4-0 lead, wrestled to a 5-5 tie and then scored seven unanswered runs to establish some semblance of control.

Ryan Wheeler, a fifth-round draft pick from Loyola Marymount, led a 16-hit Yakima attack by going 4-for-5, scoring four runs and driving in another.

Andrew Fie had three hits and Tyrell Worthington was 2-for-4 with a game-high four RBI.

Gon-zaga product Tyson Van Winkle, batting .364 coming in, was 0-for-2 but drew three walks — one of which drove in a run.

Eugene’s Joey Railey had four hits and Nate Frieman and Chris Tremblay added three each. But them Ems also made three errors, issued six walks and left 14 men on base — seven in scoring position.

Yakima, seeking its first four-game winning streak since 2007, made a mess of the second inning, committing three errors while starter Rafael Quezada walked two.

The Emeralds added three hits — one of them an RBI single by Railey — plus a sacrifice fly by Bo Davis, en route to a 10-hitter inning and a 4-0 lead.

But the Bears got two back in the bottom half on run-scoring singles from Fie and Jorge Corniel, and probably would have had two more had not second baseman Railey made a diving catch of Dan Kaczrowski’s bases-loaded liner to end the inning.

In the third, though, Yakima KO’d Eugene starter Pedro Hernandez with five hits by the first six hitters. Clayton Conner’s double, Worthington’s single and a Hernandez balk scored three runs for a 5-4 Bears lead.

Eugene tied it in the fourth on Railey’s leadoff double, a groundout to second and Vincent Belnome’s RBI grounder to short.

Yakima, however, scored the next seven to break it open.

Wheeler had an RBI single in a three-run Bears fourth, then singled and scored for the fourth time in a four-run Yakima fifth.

Worthington’s two-run single highlighted the frame which Corniel opened by doubling and ended by flying out to the warning track in left with the sacks full.

Leading off the Bears eighth, Wheeler hit perhaps his hardest ball of the night — a liner right at Emeralds right-fielder Ty Wright.

“Weird,” he said after his batting average had jumped from .333 to .423. “The one before that I cued (off the end of the bat and beyond the reach of third baseman Edinson Rincon for an infield single). That’s just the way the game is.

“The thing about us is we’ve got a bunch of guys on this team who swing the bats. Our defense was a little off tonight, but we recovered and won the game.”

Clayton Suss, the second of five Yakima pitchers, got the win. He, Justin Albert and Jesse Orosco each worked an inning in relief of Rafael Quezada while Randy Hamrick pitched two.

“The Hamrick kid was impressive,” Didier said. “I left him out there even though we might not be able to use him tomorrow night. When you get a chance to win a game, especially a wild one like this, you try to make sure.”

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