Strikeouts stall Moscow in loss to Post Falls

Apr. 17—MOSCOW — The Post Falls Trojans' pitchers dominated the game, dishing out 15 strikeouts to the Moscow batters in a nonleague baseball contest held at the Moscow Community Playfields on a cold Thursday afternoon.

The bigger school, Idaho Class 6A Trojans, routed the Idaho Class 5A Bears 15-7.

Moscow coach Griffin Rod said there were some positives, with better play on defense, and said he thought some of the pitchers did well, but the strikeouts from Post Falls (8-8-1) were too much for the Bears (3-7) to handle.

"Too many strikeouts," Rod said. "We had some success trying to use the small ball a little bit, but at the end of the day, 15 strikeouts is too much to overcome. But (this is a) young group (that is) still cutting their teeth at the varsity level. So again, we're kind of hunting different versions of success right now, but definitely 15 strikeouts, too many to compete against these big schools."

How the game played out

Early in the contest, Moscow looked like it was going to compete with Post Falls, keeping it close after giving up three runs in the first inning. Moscow clawed back into the game with a two-run first inning and one run apiece in the second and third innings to tie it at 3-3.

The Trojans took more control in the third and fourth innings, scoring two runs and five runs, respectively.

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In the fourth inning, Huckleberry O'Donnell came in to to pitch for the Bears and walked Caden Reese, who then stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. Then Gavin Wienker doubled on a fly ball to center field, followed by an Ayden Carrasco single through a gap between the third baseman and the shortstop, which scored Wienker and moved Carrasco to second on an errant throw.

Rod said O'Donnell did some good stuff on the mound with his knuckleball keeping batters on their toes.

A couple of singles and a sacrifice fly later, Post Falls held a 10-4 lead at the end of the top of the fourth.

Moscow fought back with singles from Javan Barton and Benson Godfrey, who reached third and second on an errant throw.

Then Max Hain hit a sacrifice fly to score Barton, Sam Rigney walked and Connor Perry hit a blooper above the first baseman's head down the right-field line to score Godfrey and put runners on the corners.

Brock Fealy was walked and then the Trojans put in a new pitcher, Caden Perkins, who was lights out for most of the rest of the game.

Rigney scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-7, but that was the last run Moscow would score.

"The team as a whole, they do a really good job of staying positive," Rod said. "I always appreciate that, but (I'd) love to see a little bit more competitive fight come out of them too, when the game's close especially. So (a) good four innings, and then it got away from us. But it's a learning season."

Standout players