Bears endure rare off night at home

YAKIMA, Wash. — With one out and two on in the top of the seventh inning Monday night, a Bears fan responded to an errant Yakima pitch with, ‘C’mon, Jake!”

Which would have been entirely understandable, except Yakima’s pitcher was Keith Cantwell.

And that mostly summed up an off evening for the Bears, who hadn’t had one at home since Aug. 4.

As a result, Yakima saw its playoff push at least temporarily stalled by a 4-1 loss to Salem-Keizer before an announced 1,489 at Yakima County Stadium.

The defeat ended the Bears streaks of eight wins at home and five overall, and reduced their second-half East Division lead over Spokane to two games with 13 to play.

Yakima (16-9 second half, 34-29 overall) had also taken the Volcanoes’ measure seven consecutive times, and the teams will meet again tonight before the Indians arrive Wednesday to begin an weighty three-game series.

“Can’t win ’em all,” said Yakima manager Bob Didier, whose evening had ended two innings before the game did. “It was just one of those things where their kid shut us out for five innings and did a nice job, and then we gave up a run here and a run there.

“We have a good hitter up and the bases loaded in the seventh, and I felt like if we could just get a run or two at that point, it might make a difference. But … it didn’t happen.”

What did happen was an unusual play that resulted in Didier’s first ejection of the year.

With one out, S-K’s Mario Rodriguez was relieved by Stephen Shackleford, and the Bears greeted him with successive singles by Justin Hilt, Henry Zabala and Raoul Torrez to load the bases.

Pinch-hitter Raywilly Gomez then hit a slow roller to first baseman Carlos Quintana that Gomez felt certain had bounced off his foot. Quintana nonetheless fielded the ball and threw to catcher Michael Murray, who in turn threw back to Quintana while Gomez, who’d advanced perhaps halfway to the bag, stared at home plate umpire Mike Cascioppo in disbelief as an inning-ending double play was signaled.

Didier was much more vehement in his disagreement, charging Cascioppo and showing him what he believed to be a black mark that Gomez’s shoe had left on the ball. Neither Cascioppo nor base ump Carl Ramsey was sympathetic to Didier’s case, however, so the manager spiked what he regarded as his compelling evidence to the turf on being thrown out.

“Did I see the ball come off his foot? No,” Didier said. “But to see a kid react that quickly in that situation, I’ve got to believe it did.”

The Bears did get on the board an inning later via Mike Freeman’s infield single, Zach Walters’ two-out double and a wild pitch. Yazy Arbelo then walked, but Justin Hilt struck out.

The Volcanoes (8-17, 25-38), who’d lost four straight and seven of 10, scored once in each of the fifth and sixth innings, one on Carlos Quintana’s run-scoring triple and the other on Carter Jurica’s two-out RBI double.

The first tally came against Yakima starter Enrique Burgos (1-1), the second off Robbie Andrews.

Cantwell then yielded three successive one-out hits in the seventh, the final of which was Julio Izturis’ run-scoring single. A fielding error, charged to Cantwell, made it 4-0.

Justin Schumer, recently promoted to the Volcanoes from the Arizona Summer League, allowed only two hits over five innings to get his first Northwest League win.

Walters doubled twice for the Bears, who maintained a six-game lead over Boise in the overall standings that would come into play if first-half division winner Spokane rallies to also claim the second.

“Burgos did his job, holding them to one run and keeping us in the game,” Didier said. “Things just didn’t go our way tonight. But we’ve been playing well, we feel good about ourselves and if we win tomorrow, that’s four out of five in this series.”

The Cascadians: Blazing trails, telling tales

YAKIMA, Wash. — Eighty-four years ago, an intrepid pair of Yakima men, Clarence Starcher and Clarence Truitt, did something that remains just as remarkable today as it was then.

Over nine days in July 1926, Starcher, Truitt and a third man climbed Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams and Mount Rainier. They carried no bedding, lived on a diet of berries, canned wheat and gorp — good ol’ raisins and peanuts — and climbed four substantial peaks that constituted some 11 miles of climbing.

Except for the stretch from the base of Mount Hood to Spirit Lake near Mount Adams — they didn’t drive from one peak to the next. They hiked — 350 miles in all, including the trek from Paradise on Mount Rainier all the way to Bumping Lake to catch their ride back to Yakima.

Insane? Incomprehensible? Impossible?

Well, perhaps more than anything else, one thing about those two men lends their achievement its proper frame of reference:

They were Cascadians.

By 1926, the club had already been around for six years since the Yakima Morning Herald’s introductory headline — “Amateur Walkers Organize a Club” — that didn’t begin to do the Cascadians justice.

For 90 years the Cascadians have walked more miles to more out-of-the-way breathtaking spots than just about anybody else. They have made first ascents on precipitous peaks, skied into the backcountry when almost nobody else was, hiked trails rarely taken and, of course, built trails where there weren’t.

They have seen more wildflowers, enjoyed more mountain alpenglow, picked more huckleberries and morels, and in every way experienced the great outdoors to a far greater extent than the rest of us Valley-bound landlubbers combined.

The memories and tales will flow Wednesday night when past and present Cascadians celebrate their 90 years of collective existence with a “birthday bash” at the Living Care Retirement Community’s Meyer Auditorium.

Perhaps someone will bring up the renowned mountaineers that have populated the club over the years, from Louie Ulrich and Lex Maxwell to the Prater brothers, Gene and Bill, to Dave Mahre and Fred Stanley, men who literally and figuratively wrote the book on climbing in the Cascades.

Someone might wax rhapsodic about Chuck and Marion Hessey, crosscountry ski pioneers whose films of backcountry skiing in the 1950s and 1960s are still cult classics in that hardy world. Or perhaps they’ll recall Dorothy Egg, who made crosscountry skiing so accessible, by teaching Cascadians the sport she loved so they might teach others.

Or maybe somebody will recall how instrumental Don Havlin was in directing the Cascadians’ focus on trail building and maintenance, a labor of love championed in more recent years by Clar Pratt. Or maybe somebody will bring up the astounding native-plant expertise of Clarence Seely, who even had a rare mountain flower (Seely’s catchfly, or Silene seelyi) named after him.

Or, perhaps, the assemblage will focus instead on who hiked where last week and what they saw.

And that should take a while.

•   •   •   •

Though older and grayer around the temples, the Cascadians — numbering roughly 200 these days — are still filling the trails. And if you’re an outsider wondering whether hiking with the Cascadians is for you, here are the daily hikes:

Tuesday: You have two choices here — the “Tuesdays,” which is an experience for the limber of limb and the Olympic of cardiovascular capacity, and the Tuesday “Twos,” which is for the rest of us.

The Tuesdays’ popularity with a solid core of regulars is testament to the hardiness of the Cascadians, because those people go. A typical hike might be a 10- to 12-miler with 2,000 feet of elevation gain, with little tarrying along the way. Hikers who pause to snap a photo or admire a view are apt to find themselves 200 yards behind the rest of the group.

“The Tuesdays are too damn fast,” says Jim Barnhill of Yakima, one of the founders of the Tuesday Twos.

“You can’t change that Tuesday group — that’s the way they’re going to be,” adds Irene Hlousek of Zillah. “That’s why I steer new people away from there. People say, ‘I walk every day.’ Well, that’s not the same as hiking with elevation. Don’t even think about going out with (the Tuesdays) unless you know what you’re in for.”

The Twos go a pretty good distance — maybe eight to 10 miles — but you can take a picture or a water break and not have a lot of catching up to do. The other hikers will — gasp — wait for you.

Hlousek was a longtime regular with the Tuesdays who also switched to the Twos. “I was beginning to feel that I couldn’t keep up the (Tuesdays’) pace,” she says, “and there was no way I was going to give up hiking. And there were other people feeling the same way, so we figured why not have another group? We meet a half-hour later, don’t go as far or especially as fast. We have people who like to take pictures, and we enjoy the strolling along.”

Thursday: The “Pokies” typically have the largest group every week, with 20 to 25 people regularly showing up and as many as 50 Cascadians who hike with this Thursday group at least infrequently. Although there are the occasional younger Pokies, many are grandparents or great-grandparents. But don’t let that fool you: They can still hike.

“We do have a lot of (people in their) 70s and 80s who have been hiking a long time, and we’re still there,” says Jeanne Crawford, who has coordinated the Pokies’ hikes for many years. “We figure that’s why we’re still there — because we’re still out there.”

The Pokies might hike anywhere from two miles to seven or eight miles — last week’s trip to Union Creek Falls was about five miles — but they’ll take breaks for views, breathers and the camaraderie. Says Crawford, “It’s a companionship thing.”

Some Thursdays also feature a second hike that might be called the “Thursday alternates,” though it hasn’t quite taken hold. This one is sort of the reverse of the Tuesday Twos — it’s for people who want to go faster and perhaps further than the Pokies.

Saturday/Sunday: Some of the weekend hikes are as long and difficult as the Tuesdays, but because newcomers or prospective Cascadians are more apt to be on hand, the pace is typically a little less than breakneck. And more recently the club has begun hosting easier hikes — including one this Saturday at Naches Peak — intended primarily to introduce the club to potential new members.

Even for people who aren’t joiners, Cascadians are great to know because, well, they know things. They know where the wildflowers will be at their prettiest and where to see them, where the huckleberries will grow and when, when to break out the crosscountry skis and where the first good snow trails will be, how and why some winter trails are better for snowshoes, and where the views are good regardless of the time of year.

Cascadians do it all. They have a camera club that meets monthly to share their outdoor photographs or techniques. They host backpacking trips, climbs and treks of all kinds.

Not too shabby for a bunch of “amateur walkers.”

Cascadians would do well to pay experiences forward

Anybody who has ever seen Frank Capra’s Christmas classic,

“It’s a Wonderful Life,” remembers the film’s final-scene toast by Harry Bailey to his brother George, “the richest man in town.”

When it comes to the great outdoors, the Cascadians are George Bailey.

The members of this venerable club have hiked and skied to so many places, seen so much remarkable scenery, been so routinely close to what Mutual of Omaha used to call “the Wild Kingdom,” and enjoyed so much of this state’s wilderness that they are a collective vault of knowledge, understanding, experience and appreciation of the very things that make this part of the country so special.

So here’s my suggestion to the Cascadians: Pay it forward.

Pass that wealth on to future generations.

Specifically, to kids.

Honesty in advertising moment: It wasn’t my suggestion, initially. It came from my far better half, who comes up with a significant portion of “my” great ideas. Upon learning I was going to be going out with one of the Cascadians’ hiking groups last week, she asked why they didn’t offer hikes — nature walks, whatever you want to call them — specifically for families with kids.

And I thought, “Huh. Good question.”

Over the last decade, I’ve heard countless Cascadians lament the inexorable aging of club membership, resulting from a relative dearth of younger club members. It’s not that the club is closed to outsiders; their hikes are always open to non-members. But for years, few of those hikes have been very family-friendly, at least when that family includes kids.

Some years back, the club tried out something called “Kidcadians,” outings for kids with adult supervision, but it stayed largely in-house, consisting largely of kids and grandkids of Cascadian members. That wasn’t necessarily by design. It was just how things went.

Perhaps the Kidcadian events weren’t advertised enough; maybe the word didn’t quite get out. Or maybe non-club members just weren’t interested.

But they should be.

They need to be.

We are besieged by studies reminding us our younger generations are growing increasingly overweight. Maybe that’s the fault of the way we fund public education, with P.E. classes — once a staple in nearly every school — too often falling victim to budget cuts. Maybe it’s the byproduct of modern technology, which gives us ease and convenience and makes it easy for us to forget that, hey, there’s nothing wrong with a little sweat and effort. Or maybe the kids’ obesity comes from their parents, who think a trip to the mall constitutes an “outing.”

Either way, I think people who have as much to offer as the Cascadians have a great opportunity to reach out to those kids. Maybe even an obligation.

Roger Short, a Cascadian member who has been involved with the Boy Scouts of America for more than 60 years, thinks so. “Kids aren’t getting out there enough,” he says. “It would be nice to have a group like the Cascadians show them how to do it and do it well.”

An enterprising Cascadian named Claudia Christie has begun hosting a relatively easy monthly Saturday hike specifically to introduce newcomers to the club, and that’s a start. But parents with younger kids aren’t chomping at the bit to go along, probably because they think the hikes would be too tough for the kids.

So give them easier hikes.

Perhaps have a different Cascadian leader every time — one with an expertise in flowers one outing, maybe one who can talk about the different birds or animals the next. What’s the most popular hike in the county, year after year? The Cowiche Canyon Conservancy’s Earth Day hike, in which the leaders take their time to point out the rock formations, the birds, the plant life — and the kids, dozens of them every year, just eat it up.

But once a year on Earth Day isn’t enough.

It’s up to you, Cascadians. You have the means to get those kids away from their video games and the malls and get them into the great outdoors, even if it’s only for a little while here and there. Their parents or grandparents will have to come along, too, of course — hey, just think of all those potential new members. And think of the gift you’ll be giving to future generations.

You’re the richest people in town.

Share the wealth.

• Outdoors editor Scott Sandsberry can be reached at 509-577-7689 or ssandsberry@yakimaherald.com

Local report: Three ex-Yaks ink Division II letters of intent

Kate Urquhart of Highland has joined former Yakima Valley women’s basketball teammates Nicole Fenumiai and Nicole DeRosier in signing letters of intent with NCAA Division II schools.

Urquhart and Fenumiai signed with Hawaii Pacific of Honolulu, while DeRosier will continue her career at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

All three were starters on YVCC’s team last season that went 24-6, won the Eastern Region championship and reached the NWAACC Tournament championship game.

“Kate showed tremendous improvement during her career, starting with the summer after her senior year at Highland, where she spent countless hours working on footwork and shooting,” Yakima Valley coach Cody Butler said. “That work paid off in her achievements at YVCC and now with the opportunity  to continue at a four-year university.”

Fenumiai is from Juneau, Alaska, and DeRosier is from Puyallup.

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MEN’S BASKETBALL

Johnson earns academic honor

Former Eisenhower basketball standout Branden Johnson, who recently completed his college career at Montana State, has been named to the honors court as one of the top student athletes in college basketball according to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).

Johnson qualified for the honor by compiling a grade-point average of 3.20 or better as a varsity player of junior or senior class standing in a four-year NCAA or NAIA program.

Last season Johnson averaged 10.2 points and 5.6 rebounds for the Bobcats and led the team with 20 blocked shots and 91 3-pointers.
He was a four-time All-Big Sky Conference academic all-star and was one of only five Big Sky players and 185 NCAA Division I players to be named to the honors court.

8-24 What’s Happening

Thursday hearing set on white-tailed rules

If you want to have your say about whether the hugely popular white-tailed deer hunting in two northeastern Washington game manage-ment units (GMUs) should

be restricted to four points or better, Thursday’s your best chance.

The last of a series of public meetings put on around the state by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Yakima Convention Center (Room A). It will follow a meeting tonight at the Colville campus of the Community College of Spokane and one Wednesday at the Center Place Regional Event Center in Spokane Valley.

Under current rules, any buck can be harvested during hunting season in GMUs 117 (49 Degrees North, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties) and 121 (Huckleberry, Huckleberry County). Those GMUs have been consistently productive units in terms of harvest, though WDFW wildlife managers hope to increase white-tailed population in northeast Washington.

Last spring, the Stevens County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee petitioned the state wildlife commission to restrict harvest of white-tailed bucks to four antler points or more. Last month, a majority of stakeholder groups around the state favored the four-point restriction over reducing the general season or limited-entry hunting.

A lot of hunters from this part of the state hunt white-tailed deer in northeast Washington. So: What would you like to see the state do?

*******

Wild turkey group to meet next Tuesday

Wild turkey hunting enthusiasts, save this date: Tuesday, Aug. 31.

Local members of the National Wild Turkey Federation are trying to work up some momentum towards creating a local Yakima-area chapter, which there hasn’t been for a few years.

Organizers have tentatively set next Tuesday evening as the date for an organizational meeting, with Idaho-based NWTF regional director Barnabas Koka and Washington state chapter president Kurt Beckley scheduled to attend.

The meeting site, though, has not been finalized. Look in this column next Tuesday or later this week in the Herald-Republic’s Out There blog for the specific time and location.

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BIRD ALERT

Wenas Lake continues to draw interesting birds and interested birders.

Last Tuesday a birder went to check on the juvenile black tern that’s been creating a stir there, but instead discovered an immature Bonaparte’s gull and an adult common tern — birds more easily seen along the Columbia River than in our area. Birders there also saw one long-billed dowitcher, several Wilson’s snipe, a dozen lesser sandpipers and three Baird’s sandpipers.

A group of birders visiting Fort Simcoe on Sunday found several black bears eating pears under the old pear trees at the fort. A ranger told the birders this is an annual event, with up to seven black bears in the park at one time this year.

High in one pear tree, four or five Lewis’s woodpeckers, 15 western tanagers, a few black-headed grosbeaks, and one Bullock’s oriole jabbed into ripe pears. Other interesting species included about 10 purple finches and a variety of migrants: western wood-pewee, dusky flycatcher, violet-green and barn swallows, warbling vireo, gray catbird, orange-crowned and Wilson’s warblers.

The fall migration of Vaux’s swifts has started; 62 were seen Sunday evening flying down the large chimney at the Herald-Republic office — where, in May, more than 500 were counted flying into the chimney several nights in a row. People will probably be in the parking lot on the west side of the Herald-Republic off every evening for the next couple of weeks, and they could use more folks to help count. It’s quite a spectacle.

Please call your bird sightings in to the Yakima Valley Audubon phone line at 509-248-1963.

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AROUND AND ABOUT

• Several areas on the Cle Elum Ranger District have recently opened for firewood collection, with piles available featuring a mix of Douglas fir, grand fir, ponderosa and lodgepole pine. Firewood areas are posted as such and are located along forest road 9712 (Lion Gulch), north of Liberty, and 9726121 (Pine and Harkness Gulch), south of Liberty;  9738 (Blue Creek), (9714112) Iron Creek and 7320111 (Old Blewett). Maps of these areas and cutting permits ($5 per cord, minimum purchase four cords) are available at the Cle Elum Ranger Station, 803 W. Second St., Cle Elum, and at the Ellensburg Chamber of Commerce.

• Lake Wenatchee will close for sockeye salmon fishing one hour after sunset Aug. 31, by which time most of the sockeye currently in the lake will have migrated to the White and Little Wenatchee rivers.

• The Washington State Department of Natural Resources is  temporarily closing some roads, a campground, and access  in two areas due to road work in Capitol State Forest, south of Olympia, and near Mount Si. In Capitol State Forest, Porter Creek Campground and the nearby B-Line Road will be closed into next year. Just east of Mount Si Natural Resources Conservation Area, the DNR and the U.S. Forest Service are working on abandoning some old logging roads, with one section of road to be converted to a trail. That closure began last Friday. For more information, go online to: washingtondnr.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/

• The WDFW will hold a roundtable meeting Sept. 8 in Brewster to discuss fish and wildlife issues with the public, with Director Phil Anderson and regional staff on hand. The 5:30-to-7:30 p.m. meeting will be at the Columbia Cove recreation building, 508 W. Cliff Ave.

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ON THE CALENDAR

TODAY: The Cascadians’ “Tuesdays” will head up to Ironstone Mountain north of Highway 12, meeting at 7:30 a.m. at the 40th Avenue Bi-Mart and carpooling from there for what will be a 10-mile hike with 1,700 feet of elevation gain.

WEDNESDAY: Yakima Valley Audubon will host a morning bird walk beginning at 9 a.m. at the first parking lot inside the gate at Yakima Sportsman State Park. The walk is the summer’s Birdin’ Around event of the Yakima Greenway’s Kiddin’ Around program, aimed at involving area kids in outdoor activities, and figures to be a two-hour search for answers: Will young blackbirds still be at the marsh? Will shorebirds find mud at the main pond? Will the fall migration of warblers be under way?

WEDNESDAY: The Mount Adams Cycling Club’s weekly 24-mile Naches Loop ride gets rolling at 6 p.m. from the Fred Meyer/Key Bank parking lot. For more online info on the club and its ride schedule, visit www.mountadamscycling.org.

THURSDAY: The Cascadians’ Pokies will finally make their oft-postponed trek of the Naches Peak Loop, with some hikers sticking to the four-mile Naches Peak Loop and more hardier sorts making the trip down to Dewey Lake and around. For meeting time and place, call Jeanne Crawford at 966-8608.

SATURDAY: The Cascadians will host two hikes on this day, an easier one at Naches Peak intended to introduce potential new hikers to the club and a gnarlier one to Grand Park for experienced hikers. The former, just over four miles with 500 feet of elevation gain, offers great wildflowers, a spectacular view of Mount Rainier and, at this time of year, probably some huckleberries to savor along the way.

For the meeting time and place on that hike, call Claudia at 509-388-9307. The Grand Park will be significantly tougher, a 14-miler with 2,000 feet of elevation gain. For meeting time and place, call Ed at 457-1533.

MONDAY: Members and guests of the Mount Adams Cycling Club will head out at 5:45 p.m. from YAC Fitness in Terrace Heights on a ride that will be either longer (30 miles) and flatter or shorter (23 miles) and hillier. Expect the pace to be in the 13- to 16-mph range.

Cadets dominate first cross country poll

While in a fog of working on our annual preseason prep football section, there’s big news to report on other fronts. The preseason cross country coaches poll is out and Eisenhower appears poised for a double dose of dominance. The Cadets are ranked No. 1 in 4A boys and No. 2 in girls. The boys, in fact, are ranked 22nd in the Harrier Magazine’s national poll. Here’s the state poll:

BOYS
Class 4A: 1, Eisenhower; 2, Jackson; 3, Lewis & Clark; 4, Mead; 5, Ferris; 6, Auburn Riverside; 7, Walla Walla; 8, Issaquah; 9, Gig Harbor; 10, Skyline. Others: Wenatchee, Olympia, Redmond.
Class 3A: 1, North Central; 2, University; 3, Kamiakin; 4, Seattle Prep; 5, Mt. Spokane; 6, Blanchet; 7, Everett; 8, Bellevue; 9, Shorecrest; 10, Peninsula. Others: Columbia River, Camas.
Class 2A: 1, Sehome; 2, Mark Morris; 3, Lindbergh; 4, Ellensburg; 5, Bellingham; 6, Interlake; 7, Cheney; 8, Chehalis; 9, Lakewood; 10, Cedarcrest. Others: Selah, Kingston, North Kitsap, Squalicum.
Class 1A: 1, Port Townsend; 2, Nooksack Valley; 3, Lakeside; 4, La Center; 5, Riverside; 6, Lynden Christian; 7, Charles Wright; 8, Meridian; 9, Cashmere; 10, Seattle Christian. Others: Royal, Toledo, Freeman.
Class 2B-1B: 1, Northwest Christian (Lacey); 2, Republic; 3, Mossyrock; 4, Mt. Rainier Lutheran; 5, Tri-Cities Prep; 6, North Beach; 7, Northwest Christian (Spokane); 8, White Pass; 9, Waitsburg-Prescott; 10, St. John-Endicott. Others: Bear Creek, St. George’s, Davenport.

GIRLS
Class 4A: 1, Stanwood; 2, Eisenhower; 3, Bellarmine; 4, Eastlake; 5, Gig Harbor; 6, Tahoma; 7, Central Valley; 8, Redmond; 9, Richland; 10, Lewis & Clark. Others: Davis, Stadium, Arlington, Auburn Riverside.
Class 3A: 1, Glacier Peak; 2, Shadle Park; 3, Kamiakin; 4, Peninsula; 5, Lakeside; 6, Mt. Spokane; 7, Prairie; 8, Enumclaw; 9, Camas; 10, Columbia River. Others: Bainbridge, Seattle Prep, Capital.
Class 2A: 1, Sehome; 2, Kingston; 3, Lindbergh; 4, Cedarcrest; 5, Cheney; 6, Ephrata; 7, Bellingham; 8, Interlake; 9, Lakewood; 10, Deer Park. Others: North Kitsap, Squalicum.
Class 1A: 1, Northwest; 2, Riverside; 3, Lakeside; 4, Omak; 5, La Center; 6, Nooksack Valley; 7, King’s; 8, Chelan; 9, Meridian; 10, Cashmere. Others: Seattle Academy, Bellevue Christian, Ilwaco.

Class 2B-1B: 1, Northwest Christian (Lacey); 2, White Pass; 3, Northwest Christian (Spokane); 4, St. George’s; 5, Crosspoint Academy. Others: Asotin, Waitsburg-Prescott.

Bears roll on with another solid performance

Hilt, bullpen spark fifth win in a row||

YAKIMA, Wash. — Things have reached a point with the Bears this season in which the term “teammate” has assumed a new connotation.

So eager are Yakima’s players to help each other that even the postgame ritual of answering a reporter’s questions has become a group endeavor.

Sunday night, for example, Justin Hilt had homered, singled and doubled in a 5-3 victory over Salem-Keizer. A triple would obviously have given him the coveted cycle.

So when the Yakima outfielder was approached about having before accomplished the feat, a chorus of locker room voices rose in support.

“Every day,” someone yelled. “Twenty three times in high school and once in college,” shouted another.

Still another, who perhaps misunderstood the question, added, “You just want to get the barrel out there.”

Finally, once the revelry had subsided, Hilt said, laughingly, “Actually, I don’t think I ever have. But it was fun to get this close.”

As most of an announced 1,781 jacket-wearing, blanket-clutching fans in breezy Yakima County Stadium would no doubt have agreed.

The Bears (16-8 second half, 34-28 overall), having won five straight, nine of 11 and eight in a row at home, moved closer to their first playoff berth since 2000.

Their second-half East Division lead over Spokane held firm at three games as the Indians used a four-run rally in the ninth to top Vancouver, and only 14 regular-season contests remain.

How rare is all of this? One more win will equal the most a Yakima team has posted since 2004.

Hilt’s 3-for-3 night, which included his fourth long ball and also an RBI double in a decisive three-run Bears sixth inning, was Sunday’s key along with further evidence that the Bears’ bullpen might be among the best in Northwest League history.

After Miguel Pena allowed only two unearned runs over six innings to get the win (4-5), Corey Davisson worked a hitless seventh and eighth.

Kable Hogben then walked the first two hitters in the ninth — something as uncharacteristic for the right-handed closer as an earlier error was for sure-handed third baseman Raoul Torrez. The fifth-inning miscue led to Salem-Keizer’s first two runs.

In the ninth, a passed ball advanced the runners to second and third but then Hogben got a strikeout, a run-scoring groundout and then a game-ending whiff for his eighth save.

The strikeouts raised Hogben’s season total to 36 over 31 2/3 innings. He has walked just six and the run he allowed inflated his ERA to 0.85.

Hogben and other Yakima relievers have allowed a mere two runs over their last 22 innings.

“It really was just a well-played game,” manager Bob Didier said. “Our starting pitcher set the tone, we got some big hits and then we made some good plays defensively.”

Including a diving stop and throw by Torrez preceding his error. The Arizona State product made several other standout plays, had two hits and also put down a textbook safety squeeze bunt that scored Hilt with the Bears’ go-ahead run in the sixth.

Torrez stole second and took third when catcher Daniel Burkhart’s throw sailed into center field, then scored on Tom Belza’s sacrifice fly.

Belza, hitting ninth, added an RBI single in the eighth.

“That was a very big hit for a guy coming off our bench,” Didier said. “You never know how a game’s going to go, and we felt a lot more comfortable with that extra run in the ninth.”

Addison Proszek, a Chewelah native and Gonzaga alum, took the loss (0-1) for the Volcanoes (7-17, 24-38).

8/23/10 Yakima Bears update

Next game

Opponent: Salem-Keizer Volcanoes.

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

Radio: KUTI (1460).

Website: www.yakimabears.com

Probable pitchers: Yakima RHP Enrique Burgos (1-0, 5.26) vs. Salem-Keizer RHP Justin Schumer (1-0, 1.86).

Notes

THE ROAD FROM HERE: After Sunday’s play, 14 games remained in the 76-game Northwest League season and the Bears were in their strongest playoff position since 2003.

Yakima didn’t advance that year despite posting 45 victories — the Bears’ last winning season.

They’re in substantially better shape this year, thanks in large part to the Northwest League’s adoption of a split season.

Yakima maintained its three-game lead over Spokane in the second half, and with eight of its last 14 scheduled for Yakima County Stadium where the Bears are 22-8.

Even if Spokane overtakes Yakima, and thus wins both halves, the Bears are in solid shape for the second-half postseason berth since it goes to the East Division team with the second-best overall record.

After Sunday’s victory, Yakima was six games ahead of Boise in that competition as the Hawks lost to Vancouver.

Should the Bears and Spokane meet in the first round, Yakima would host the first game of a best-of-three series on Sept. 6. The second and, if necessary, the third would be played in Spokane on Sept. 7-8.

The Bears last made the playoffs in 2000 when, as a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate, they defeated Eugene in a best-of-five series 3-2 for the NWL championship.

STOTTLEMYRE BOBBLEHEAD NIGHT SET: Bears general manager K.L. Wombacher confirmed Sunday that Mel Stottlemyre will attend Friday night’s home game with Spokane which has been designated as Mel Stottlemyre Bobblehead Night.

The former Mabton High School, Yakima Valley Community College and New York Yankees pitcher, who later became a highly successful big league pitching coach, will throw out the first pitch. Afterward, he’ll likely be available to sign autographs.

Wombacher also said Stottlemyre will be accompanied by his wife, Jean.

HALE’S BACK: Yakima closer Jake Hale was back with the team Sunday after attending funeral services for his grandmother. Helen Britton passed away last week in McArthur, Ohio, which is a 20-minute drive from Hale’s current residence of Albany in the southeastern part of the state.

Hale had disclosed in a story previously published in the Herald-Republic that after the season he will have two tattoos inscribed on his back — one in honor of a close friend who died prior to the season and the other in his grandmother’s memory.

The tattoos will basically consist of two hands reaching downward from heaven.

Longton hangs on in Late Model at Speedway

YAKIMA, Wash. — Mike Longton found his way back into the winner’s circle, holding off a challenge from rookie Tayler Riddle to win the Super Late Model main event Saturday night at Yakima Speedway.

Longton quickly raced his way to the front, taking the lead on lap six of the 100-lap main event, and the Moxee driver maintained that advantage from there.

In the Sportsman class, Chris VanAmburg had the fastest car in qualifying, and proved it again later by winning the main event.

Clay Mears swept through the Youth Hornets, posting the fast time, and winning the Dash, Heat and Main events. In Super Streets, Mel Patnode won both the Dash and Main events.

SATURDAY’S RESULTS

Super Late Model

Fast time: Owen Riddle, 18.723. Dash: Marcus Maggard, Lenard Barthel, Ron Bemis, Harold Raczynski. Bump to Pass Dash: Mike Longton, Erick Hargraves, Riddle, Tayler Riddle. Main: Longton, T. Riddle, Randy Marshall Jr., Bemis, O. Riddle, Christopher Kalsch, Raczynski, Hargraves, Barthel, Maggard.

Bump to Pass

Fast time: Josh Parmentier, 16.406 (track record). B Dash: Ben Briggs, Mark Maggard, Mike Parmentier, Wes Heigh. A Dash: J. Parmentier, Francisco Rojas, Robert Albert, Allen Reid. Heat 1: Briggs, Heigh, Cody Denton, Maggard, Franklin McWain, M. Parmentier. Heat 2: Rojas, Donnie Stevens, Julie McAlpine, Albert, Reid, Richie Strmiska, J. Parmentier. Main: J. Parmentier, Rojas, McAlpine, Stevens, Reid, M. Parmentier, Strmiska, Maggard, McWain, Denton, Heigh, Briggs.

Sportsman

Fast time: Chris VanAmburg, 23.380. B Dash: Don Klang, Cody Mullins, Morgan Morrison, Terry Taylor. A Dash: Jason Huffines, VanAmburg, John Rose, Jerry Walker Jr. Heat: Klang, VanAmburg, Walker Jr., Rose, Mullins, Dan Wilson, Morrison, Taylor, Ron Morton. Main: VanAmburg, Rose, Morton, Walker Jr., Klang, Wilson, Taylor, Huffines, Mullins, Morrison, Matt McDougal.

Super Streets

Fast time: Mike VanAmburg, 21.298. Dash: Mel Patnode, VanAmburg, Dusty John. Main: Patnode, VanAmburg, John, E.J. Trujillo.

Youth Hornets

Fast time: Clay Mears, 17.740. A Dash: Mears, Tyler Thorndike, Andrew Stewart. Heat: Mears, Thorndike, Stewart. Main: Mears, Thorndike, Stewart.

Bears have all the makings

Yakima gets contributions in all facets of the game in victory ||

YAKIMA, Wash. — There hasn’t been, as manager Bob Didier points out, any one thing driving the Yakima Bears success this season.

Strong pitching, solid defense and timely hitting have all had equal roles, and that was the recipe Yakima cooked up once again Saturday night at Yakima County Stadium.

With the pitching holding Salem-Keizer to five hits, the defense preventing a bigger fifth-inning Volcanoes rally, and a four-run sixth, punctuated by a clutch two-run double, the Bears prevailed 5-2 before an announced crowd of 2,172.

“We’re playing good baseball and doing everything right,” said second baseman Mike Freeman, who had the big defensive play in the fifth and the pivotal double in the sixth.

PHOTO GALLERY

Click here for more photos from this event

“The key is to find a way to win — good teams do that,” Didier said after Yakima won its fourth straight overall and seventh in a row at home to stretch its second-half lead over Spokane to three games. “If you believe you can do something, good things happen.”

That don’t-quit mentality Yakima (15-8, 33-28) has developed paid off Saturday as the Bears overcame a 2-1 deficit midway through the game.

That deficit could have been larger had it not been for Freeman.

With the bases loaded and no outs, John Eshleman grounded a ball between first and second that seemed destined to be a hit. But at the last moment, Freeman dove, caught the ball on the edge of the grass and threw Eshleman out at first.

A run scored but the out proved important. Starter Andrew Berger capitalized on his new life, getting the next two hitters to ground out, the first scoring another run, to escape with minimal damage.

“We were lucky we didn’t get burned for a three- or four-run inning,” Didier said.

“My philosophy is to try and get to everything,” Freeman said. “In that situation, we’ll trade runs for outs. Even though we gave up a couple of runs, we knew that with our offense, we’d get him (Berger) off the hook later in the game.”

Yakima did just that an inning later.

After having no luck with Volcanoes starter Edward Concepcion, the Bears jumped on relievers Devan Kline and Kaohi Downing.

Yazy Arbelo drew a leadoff walk, and after Raywilly Gomez sacrificed him to second, Roberto Ortiz singled to left, putting runners at the corner. Justin Hilt walked to load the bases, and Kawika Emsley-Pai singled up the middle to tie the game at 2-2.

Westley Moss’ sacrifice fly to center gave Yakima the lead, and Freeman followed with a double into the left-center gap, scoring Hilt and Emsley-Pai.

“Hitting is contagious. When we see one guy have a good at-bat, everyone wants to keep that approach,” Freeman said of an approach that produced nine hits and five walks Saturday. “We wanted to stay steady. If we got a good pitch to hit, take a swing. If not, let it go.”

Once Yakima got the lead, the Bears’ biggest strength on a team full of them took over as the bullpen was dominant once again.

While Berger was good, allowing three hits and two walks in his five innings, Greg Robinson, Miles Reagan and Eury De La Rosa were better, with four innings of two-hit relief, retiring eight straight and 11 of 12 in one stretch.

“Reagan stands out for me tonight,” Didier said of the converted starter who allowed just one hit in two innings of work. “That’s as good as I’ve seen him throw. And then De La Rosa came in and closed the door.”

Robinson (6-3) earned the win after pitching the top of the sixth, and De La Rosa closed for his sixth save as the Bears improved to 25-1 when leading after seven innings and a perfect 28-0 when leading after eight.

“Our bullpen has been awesome,” Freeman said. “The defense likes playing behind them because they pound the strike zone and pitch to contact.

“They’ve shut everyone down.”

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