Local report — Quick start sends Tides past Reds

TACOMA, Wash. — Zac Crim scored two second-half goals, and the Yakima Reds fell into an early hole and couldn’t dig out as they fell 4-1 to the Tacoma Tides on Friday night.

Colin Rigby scored in the third minute, and Tacoma (3-4-4) added another score late in the first half on an own goal by Yakima to lead 2-0 at the break.

Crim’s goals were sandwiched around one by Yakima’s Vini Oliveria late in the second half.

Yakima (3-7-0) travels to Victoria, British Columbia for a match tonight.

LEGION BASEBALL

Pak fall to Boise

RENO, Nev. — Kevin Allan hit a two-run home run in the third inning to put the Yakima Valley Pak ahead, but they could not hold the lead against the Boise Gems and lost 9-4 Friday in the Reno Tournament.

Ethan Flory went 2-for-3 with a triple and an RBI, and Cory Urquhart was 2-for-2 with a double and two runs scored for Yakima Valley (19-5 overall).

The Pak play at 2:30 p.m. in a consolation bracket game.

Boise Gems    200    005    2    —    9    14    0

Yakima Valley    012    010    0    —    4    5    1

Anderson and Amundson; Welton, Hinton (6), Windsor (7) and Andreas.

Highlights: Kevin Allan (YV) 2-run HR; Cory Urquhart (YV) 2-2, 2b, 2 runs; Ethan Flory (YV) 2-3, 3b, RBI.

Youth baseball

Scarlet Sizzler at Parker Field

West Valley Bees 14, Cadet Baseball Club 6 (WV: Jim Nagle 3-5 3 R; Derek Thomason 2-4; Tevor Hunter 3-4, 3 R; Tyler Ueltschi 2-3, 3 RBI; Andrew Pfaff 2-3, 3 RBI; Kevin Schwartz 3-3; Corey Onustock CG, 6 K).

Brent Edwards Tournament at Selah

Laces Baseball Club 4, Yakima Grays 2 (Yak: Zach O’Hara 1-3, R; Josh Kloster 1-3, RBI; Jake Monson 1-2).

West Valley Baseball Club 7, Spokane Rattlers 4 (8 innings) (WVBC: Casey Crowshaw 2-3; Ty Gallaway 3-3; Gil Plath 2-5; Sam Gallaway 2-5, GW 3B; Steven Wagar 11 K).

Thursday’s game

Spokane Rattlers 8, Yakima Grays 2 (Yak: Kevin Duncan 1-3, RBI; Jens Jensen 1-2, Nick Butterfield RBI).

FASTPITCH

Aramark defeats Kimmel’s

YAKIMA, Wash. — Matt Busby had three hits and three RBI, and Mark Seward also had three hits and drove in two runs to lead the Aramark Monsters to a 16-5 victory over Kimmel’s Athletic Supply in a Yakima Adult Men’s Fastpitch game Thursday night at Kiwanis Park.

Aramark Monsters 16, Kimmel’s 5

Aramark         132    46    —    16    14    3

Kimmel’s        020    03    —    5    4    1

Karr, Ward (5) and Root; George, Tefft (5) and Call.

Highlights: Carl Apts (AM) 2-3, 2 RBI; Mark Seward (AM) 3-4, 2 RBI; Matt Busby (AM) 3-4, 3 RBI; Mike Smith (KAS) RBI 3b; Serena Foster (KAS) RBI 2b.

Peak Performance/Del Monte17, CH Robinson 10

CH Robinson        302    122    —    10    15    4

Peak/Del Monte        014    363    —    17    18    3

McCauley and Hull; Fickle and Messer.

Highlights: Kelly St. Mary (CHR) 3-4, RBI; Larry McCauley (CHR) 2-3, 3 RBI; Carlos Gonzalez (PP-DM) 4-5, HR, 2 RBI; Mike Parnham (PP-DM) 3-5, 3 RBI; Bob Harris (PP-DM) 3-5, RBI.

Second-half standings

Aramark Monsters 2-0, Kimmel’s Athletic Supply 1-1, Peak Performance/Del Monte 1-1, CH Robinson 0-1, JRW & Associates 0-1.

Eric B.: rain, misery and miracles

YAKIMA, Wash. — Eric Bruntjen has grit. And maybe a guardian angel as well.

Just when things seem to be at their worst for the 38-year-old Yakima man riding in the 2,780-mile Tour Divide mountain bike race from the Canadian Rockies to the U.S.-Mexico border, something good happens. He finds an out-of-the-way inn where he thought he’d be camping in the rain in grizzly bear country … or finds a tiny motel that’s closed or full, but the night clerk lets him in anyway and finds him a room … or, in last night’s case, a night clerk who actually loans Eric his own car so he can go back and try to find some gear that fell off his bike who knows how many miles ago.

Maybe when a guy is doing something truly difficult for all the right reasons, as Eric is — riding to generate per-mile pledges toward the purchase of an all-terrain wheelchair for injured Iraq war veteran Evan Mettie — maybe he’s got some kind of aura about him that make people want to reach a hand out to help. Yeah, I know that sounds like something out of a Disney movie. But Eric’s made a believer out of me and a lot of other people, so why shouldn’t people he encounters along the way during his great adventure become believers as well?

OK, I’ll shut up now and let Eric talk. Here’s what he had to say when he called in from Kremmling, Colo., at 10:43 p.m. his time last night.

Hi, Eric Bruntjen calling in from Kremmling, Colorado. Been running in some rain today; came over Lynx Pass and really got hammered by a thunderstorm. That was on top of a tough morning getting out of Steamboat. The guys at Steamboat Bike & Ski really gave me the NASCAR treatment: new drive train, new brake pads, gave me a good tune-up, but it took most of the morning.

Ended up undoing a lot of that good work on the way down Links Pass. I lost my rear brake pads. Mud and the rain just slows everything down. Combined with my late start, I ended up pulling into Kremmling around 8:30 with only about 88 miles for the day. I probably could have kept going, but somewhere on the other side of Lynx Pass, I’d broken a snap on my rear rack and lost my tent and my sleeping bag and my dry clothes. I was in a pretty rough spot at that point, but Reid, the clerk at the hotel here, immediately offered me his car. So I jumped back back in his car and drove back to where I’d come from, up Links Pass … wasn’t really optimistic, but did end up finding my gear bag on the side of the road. And it was completely soaked, so I had to keep the hotel room, but at least I’m dry and my gear is drying and I have my gear, which is really good news.

So it’s been tough. The rain and the mud just wrecks everything. It slows me down, makes me cold and saps my energy, but I’m hanging in there, and I’m hoping for a bigger, better day tomorrow.

To see how Eric’s day is going hour-by-hour, you can check out his leaderboard page on the Tour Divide site. He’s already gone more than 1,650 miles since this race started on two weeks ago (June 12). Pledges to his tourdechair@gmail.com have slowed down just a bit, though, and there’s still a ways to go before the “Evan Mettie Donation” fund at U.S. Bank will have reached the more than $10,000 necessary to purchase that all-terrain wheelchair.

I’m optimistic, though, about Evan receiving the wheelchair that would allow him to experience more of the great outdoors he loved so much before a suicide bomber in Iraq changed his entire life. The reason for that optimism is that good people keep joining in the campaign to support Eric’s arduous campaign. Last week I wrote about how the good folks at Northwest Farm Credit Services had joined in with generous support. This week, a fellow named Bill Duerr, who lives in the historic Barge-Chestnut part of Yakima, learned that Eric Bruntjen lives in that district as well. And Bill, who has been following Eric’s campaign with great interest and admiration, pretty much decided: Hey, if people who don’t even know this guy can step up to the plate and support his effort in this worthy cause, we as neighbors should be doing the same.

So he and Paul Nagle McNaughton, who edits a newsletter that goes out to members of the Barge-Chestnut Neighborhood Association, put together a tremendous appeal for pledges in this week’s newsletter under a “Neighbors Helping Neighbors” headline, with the subhead, “Making A Difference for an Injured Veteran & YOU Can Help Too.”

Way to go, people. I applaud you. Hearing things like that make my whole day … just like those little miracle-makers along the road, like Reid the motel night clerk, make Eric Bruntjen’s day.

– Scott Sandsberry

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.”

6/26/09 Yakima Bears update

Next game

Opponent: Eugene Emeralds.

When, where: 7:05 p.m. today, Yakima County Stadium.

Probable pitchers: Eugene RHP Chris Wilkes (0-1, 9.64) vs. Yakima RHP Ricardo Taveras (0-0, 0.00).

Notes

ONE FOR THE RECORD BOOKS?: Where Astolfo Inciarte’s 17-pitch at-bat ranks on baseball’s all-time list is unclear since such statistics are not tracked by the Elias Sports Bureau. But Bears radio broadcaster and team publicist Drew Bontadelli reports that, according to Baseball Digest and the St. Petersburg Times, Hall of Fame shortstop Luke Appling fouled off 24 pitches in one plate appearance against Red Ruffing in 1940 and eventually drew a walk.

Inciarte’s prolonged at-bat, as an eighth-inning pinch hitter Wednesday night, culminated in a single that gave the Bears the go-ahead run in their 6-3 win over Eugene.

BEAU KNOWS CHAMPIONSHIPS: Beau Didier, son of Bears manager Bob Didier, was not with LSU’s baseball team when the Tigers won the College World Series on Wednesday night, but will probably get a ring because he’s part of the program.

The younger Didier redshirted as a freshman last spring after suffering a throwing arm injury that required Tommy John surgery.

Before his operation on Feb. 25, however, the Bellarmine Prep graduate was given an at-bat in the second game played in LSU’s $41 million, 9,000-seat stadium, and hit a pinch-hit two-run homer.

A PAINFUL PUNCHOUT: Collin Cowgill, the center-fielder who hit 11 homers in only 20 games with Yakima last summer before being promoted to South Bend, was having a solid season at high Class A Visalia until a recent mishap.

Though he’d batted .277 with six homers and 36 runs batted in through 61 games with the Rawhide, Cowgill struck out in a recent game and then reportedly punched a wall in frustration, breaking his hand. He is presently on the disabled list.

VISITING DIGNITARIES: Joel Youngblood and Jeff Pico, members of the Arizona Diamondbacks staff, have been in Yakima since the the Bears returned Tuesday night from their opening series at Spokane.

Youngblood, who played for five major league teams from 1976-89, is the D-backs’ minor league outfield-baserunning coordinator. Pico, Yakima’s pitching coach in 2003, pitched for the Chicago Cubs from 1988-90 and presently is Arizona’s roving minor league pitching coordinator.

He succeeded Yakima native Mel Stottlemyre Jr. in that capacity when Stottlemyre was named pitching coach of the Diamondbacks after farm director A.J. Hinch replaced Bob Melvin as Arizona’s manager earlier this season.

Click here for box score

Click here for Northwest League standings

Ramirez a surprise at Barden Classic

YAKIMA, Wash. — One of the most explosive offensive players on the East roster for Saturday’s Earl Barden All-Star Football Classic wasn’t on the roster at all.

At least, not when he showed up at the game headquarters at Yakima Valley Community College to check in.

That’s because Oscar Ramirez, the Toppenish flash who ranked among the state’s best running backs — any classification — had been dealing with a hamstring injury that was serious enough to convince Toppenish coaches he couldn’t possibly compete in the 15th annual showcase of the top graduating seniors from the smaller-classification schools.

“My coach called in and said I wasn’t going to be able to play because of my hamstring. But I came out anyway,” said Ramirez, who led the CWAC in yards (1,251), yards-per-carry (8.6) and rushing touchdowns (13) in 2008 in leading the Wildcats to their best season in a dozen years.

Ramirez said he tore the hamstring running the 100-meter dash during track season, then took off nearly two months to rehabilitate the injury before pulling the muscle again at the district meet.

Still, he didn’t want to miss a chance at testing himself against the state’s best in the Earl Barden Classic, primarily because he doesn’t know if he’ll ever suit up for football again. Although he plans to try to walk on with the football team at Boise State, where he’ll major in art — he’s an award-winning artist — Ramirez knows making the cut at a top-20 program will be a challenge.

As will trying to play Saturday with a questionable hamstring.

“It feels pretty good right now,” he said after Wednesday’s practice. “Nothing’s happened (to the hamstring) yet, but I really haven’t gone full speed. It scares me a little bit, because that’s when I pulled up — getting up to full speed. Maybe if I break a long run it’ll happen again; I don’t know.

“I might be rushing it a little bit, but I want to play in this game.”

East team head coach Brian Dunn is just as anxious to have Ramirez in his lineup.

“He’s exceptional, and what a great kid,” said Dunn, the head coach at Lakeside High near Spokane. “I keep asking him, ‘You OK to run? You all right?’ And he’s just, ‘I’m good, coach, no problem.’”

Dunn said Ramirez and Royal’s Blair Collins, a 155-pound all-state wide receiver, “are probably our two fastest kids, but there’s another three or four that are right there with them.”

One of those that aren’t far behind in the speed category is Granger’s Mychal Lopez, who played quarterback for the Spartans but can expect to be catching the football in Saturday’s game, not passing it.

“He’s going to start for us at wide receiver,” Dunn said. “I saw him in a playoff game and I thought, now that kid’s a player. He’s an athlete. He’s maybe just an inch behind Collins and Ramirez for the fastest guys on the team.”

Saturday’s game begins at 1 p.m. at Zaepfel Stadium. The game is named in honor of the late Earl Barden Sr., a Yakima businessman and supporter of youth sports who was instrumental in bringing the game to Yakima. Barden died in 1999.

Fife helps Pak past Santa Clara

RENO, Nev. — Jake Fife threw a three-hitter and drove in a run, but it took a throwing error by Santa Clara in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Fife and his Yakima Valley Pepsi Pak a 2-1 victory in the Reno Tournament on Thursday.

Yakima Valley improved to 2-1 in the tournament.

Fife struck out seven. His lone mistake with a two-out home run in the top of the seventh that allowed the Red Sox to pull even.

In the bottom of the seventh, Justin Windsor doubled and Tucker Leppa then beat out a sacrifice bunt for a single. Trevor Dallman grounded to third, and Santa Clara threw the ball away, allowing Windsor to score.

Fife drove in the Pak’s first run, a single that scored Kevin Allen.

Santa Clara          000    000    1    —    1    3    1
Yakima Valley    100    000    1    —    2    5    0
Fletcher and Dickerson; Fife and Snider
Highlights: Jake Fife (YV) 7 K’s, RBI single; Justin Windsor (YV) 2b, run; Kevin Allen (YV) run.

YOUTH BASEBALL

Brent Edwards Tournament

(At Carlon Park)

West Valley Baseball Club 7, The Laces (Everett) 2 (WV: Casey Croshaw 2-4, 2b; Tyler Galloway 2-3; Gil Plath 1-3, 2b; Josh Owens 10 Ks).

Yakima Valley Peppers 4, North Thurston 1 (YV: Jake Evans CG, 1-hitter, 5 K’s; Allen Noble 2-3, 2b, RBI; Chris Walker 2b, RBI).

Scarlets Sizzler Tournament

(At Parker Field)

Cadet Baseball Club 9, Naches 1 (Cadet: Michael Woodkey 2 hits, Hayden Watkins 2 hits; Naches: J.R. Weigel 3-3).

West Valley Bees 17, Tri-City Badgers 3 (WV: Corey Onustock 2-4; Jim Nagle 2-3; Trevor Hunter 4-4, 2b, 3b; Tyler Uelschi 2-4, 2b; Andrew Pfaff 3-3, 2 2b; Steven Greco 3-4, 2b).

Yakima Scarlets 10, Walla Walla Griz 8 (Y: Nathan Giles 4-4, 2 HR, 2b, 4 RBI; Sam Glazier 3-4, 3b, 2 RBI; Bobby Salinas 2-4, 2b, RBI).

Home runs lift Kimmel, Aramark

YAKIMA, Wash. — Casey Day slugged a two-run homer and drove in six runs with a 4-for-4 performance at the plate to power Kimmel Athletic to a 17-6 thumping of JRW & Associates to open the second half of play Wednesday night in the Yakima ASA Fastpitch season at Gateway Complex.

First-half champion Aramark Monsters hammered four home runs, two of them by Casey Feist, in a 13-6 drubbing of Peak Performance.

Kimmel Athletic    343    002    5    —    17    16    2
JRW & Associates    003    021    0    —    6    5    3
Chris George and Jay Cruz; Davenport, Hite (3) and Johnson.
Highlights: Dave Beavert (KA) 2-5, 2 3b, 2 RBI; Casey Day (KA) 4-4, 2-run HR, 6 RBI; Mark Day (KA) 2-4, 2 RBI; Chris Tefft (KA) 3-5; Ken Hite (JRW) 2-4, 3 RBI.
Peak Performance        000    60    —    6    6    2
Aramark Monsters        323    5x    —    13    11    4
Harris, Fickle (4) and Messer; Seward and Feist.
Highlights: Rob Messer (PP) 3b, 3 RBI; Mark Seward (AM) 3-3, HR, 3 RBI; Casey Feist (AM) 2-3, 2 HR, 3 RBI; Shane Jones (AM) 2-3, HR, 2 RBI.

Eric B. on antelope and eating dirt

YAKIMA, Wash. — Oops.

Eric Bruntjen called in early Wednesday morning and somehow his call got missed. Not sure how it happened. At any rate, he’s in Steamboat Springs, Colo., having reached that spot last night — 1,556 miles through the Tour Divide mountain bike race. And although I expect to hear from him this morning with another update while he’s having his bicycle thoroughly worked over, I thought you might enjoy his musings. I certainly did.

Hey, it’s Eric Bruntjen calling from Rawlins, Wyoming. I just want to leave one more message in the morning before I take off.

The bike’s holding up pretty well. I’ve got some stuff going to Steamboat and I’m going to have the NASCAR treatment done there so I might be hanging out in Steamboat a little bit tomorrow morning assuming I make it there tonight.

Wyoming’s been great. I love the antelope. They’re terrific; I can’t believe how they even run so fast through that sage, even through some trees. Some of them will run next to you — not too close, maybe 100 yards away — and then they’ll kind of look at you and just hit the gas and fly across the road in front of you, like you’re the train and they’re the drunk teenagers in Dad’s borrowed car. One, maybe two steps on that road and they’re just gone. They’re amazing creatures.

About ready to have some breakfast and then get going. Got a big pass today. I’m definitely learning a lot about the Continental Divide; getting to know the dirt and the animals. That dirt just gets in you, it becomes you, you’re eating it all day long and you’re just absorbing this amazing geological and sociological feature of our country.

It’s been a good ride. So I will hopefully check in from Steamboat. Probably going to camp tonight outside of Steamboat and then cruise in in the morning, hit the post office, get my bike tuned up. New brake pads are a definite necessity and I’ve got to reload the GPS with coordinates, so … thanks. Bye.

Antelope as drunk teenagers in Dad’s borrowed car. Becoming one with dirt. Clearly, Eric is channeling his inner Stephen Gleasner. I love it.

Follow Eric’s progress on his leaderboard page on the Tour Divide site. To make a per-mile pledge toward that all-terrain wheelchair for injured Iraq war veteran Evan Mettie — which is why Eric’s doing this and why we’re supporting it — send an e-mail to tourdechair@gmail.com saying how much you’d like to pledge.

– Scott Sandsberry

Persistence pays in Bears win

YAKIMA, Wash. — Astolfo Inciarte kept everyone on their toes.

He kept the fans alert by spraying a bunch of foul balls into the stands. He kept his teammates loose by slicing a pitch into the Yakima dugout.

And finally, on the 17th pitch of the at bat from Eugene’s Mauricio Tabachnik, with the score tied in the bottom of the eighth inning and the infield in, Inciarte bounced a single up the middle to score the go-ahead run in the Bears’ 6-3 defeat of the Emeralds.

An announced Yakima County Stadium gathering of 1,546 continued its celebration Wednesday night when Dan Kaczrowski doubled home the final two runs as the Bears won their third straight to eclipse the .500 mark for the season at 3-2.

“A quality at bat? I think that would qualify,” Yakima manager Bob Didier said of Inciarte’s work.

Answering another question rhetorically, he said, “Did we win three in a row last year? When you only win 28, you can’t have had many streaks like that.”

But then this is a different year and a different team. And Didier, in his 43rd season of professional baseball, has been given more options by his Arizona Diamondbacks superiors.

The D-backs’ minor league system is said to have put a heightened importance on winning games, and not just developing players, since the organizational shakeup earlier this year.

Hence Didier’s decision to pinch hit Inciarte for Gerson Montilla, who’d struck out in his three prior at bats.

It wouldn’t have mattered, though, had not Clayton Conner hit a three-run homer in the sixth, or had pitchers Will Harvil, Ben Dollar and Brad Wilson not combined for five innings of lights-out relief.

Eugene (1-4) totaled only four hits and got none after the third inning. Wilson, who didn’t allow a baserunner over the last two, got the win.

“Our pitching coach (Gil Heredia) did a great job, getting the right guys in the game at the right time,” Didier said. “But overall it was a very well-played game.”

Yakima, with only three hits through five innings, erased a 3-0 deficit quickly in the sixth.

Matt Davidson, 0-for-11 to start the season but 5 for 6 since, led off with a walk. Counting his earlier single and two subsequent free passes, Davidson has reached base in 11 of his last 12 trips to the plate.

Ryan Wheeler then dropped a bloop single in front of Emeralds center fielder Jason Codiroli and designated hitter Conner, on a 3-1 pitch, sliced an opposite-field, breeze-boosted drive over the wall in right-center near the 375-foot sign to tie it.

Eugene had taken advantage of control problems by Bears starter Brad Gemberling, scoring twice in the second inning with the help of two walks and a wild pitch.

The Ems added a third run in the third inning, off Ariel Brea, on Matt Vern’s two-out, RBI single.

Yakima’s decisive rally began when Tyrell Worthington struck out, but reached when the pitch eluded Eugene catcher Emmanuel Quiles. Pinch-hitter Roberto Rodriguez tried to bunt, but was out on a fouled third strike.

Tyson Van Winkle punched a single to right, however, and Worthington beat the throw to third to set up Inciarte’s heroics.

Kaczrowski was 2-for-5 and Conner and Van Winkle each was 2-for-3 as the Bears produced 10 hits for the second straight night.

“Inciarte’s hit was huge, obviously, because it gave us the lead” Didier said, “but the double was big, too. That three-spot gave us some breathing room going into the ninth.”

6/25/09 Bears update

Next game

Opponent: Eugene Emeralds.

When, where: 7:05 p.m. today, Yakima County Stadium.

Radio: KUTI 1460.

Probable pitchers: Eugene LHP Pedro Hernandez (0-1, 12.50) vs. Yakima RHP Rafael Quezada (0-1, 4.50).

Notes

OPENING NIGHT REVISITED: Bears officials were still beaming Wednesday about the franchise’s most successful home opener in recent memory.

The overflow crowd, announced at 3,047 (Yakima County Stadium’s capacity is listed at 2,654), was the largest anyone affiliated with the current regime could remember.

The weather — warm and still — was perfect, and the team won an entertaining 6-5 game highlighted by a 410-foot, two-run homer by 18-year-old third baseman Matt Davidson.

Asked if he could have scripted a more positive scenario, general manager K.L. Wombacher thought for a second, then smiled and said, “No.”

IT’S SUMMER(S) AGAIN: Houston Summers is back with the Bears, marking the third straight year that he’s spent at least part of his season in Yakima.

The catcher-utility infielder-turned-knuckleball pitcher recently returned from a spot start for Class Double-A Mobile in a game at Jacksonville.

“It went great,” he said. “I think 14 of my 19 first pitches were strikes.”

Summers, 21 and a 47th-round draft pick in 2005, said he greatly improved his control of the knuckler during extended spring training.

Control was Summers’ primary problem last year when as a Bears starter he went 5-7 with a 5.29 earned run average.

Manager Bob Didier said Summers will initially be used as a spot starter and middle reliever.

Click here for the box score

Click here for Northwest League standings

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