by Mike Safford Jr., Voice of the Boise Hawks
BOISE, Idaho - Xavier Batista hit a three-run home run in a seven-run fifth inning outburst, helping the Boise Hawks to their fifth-straight win, a 14-10 victory over the Spokane Indians, before 2,637 fans at Memorial Stadium.
The Hawks moved to 6-2 in the second half of the Northwest League season, pounding out a season-high 17 hits in the victory - as all nine batters in the order had at least one hit and one run scored.
Spokane took a quick 1-0 lead in the first on a Ryan Rua fielders' choice, scoring Patrick Cantwell from third, but the Hawks grabbed the lead for good in the third on Stephen Bruno's first professional homer, a two-run shot to left. An inning later, Dong-Yub Kim laced a two-run double to left to make it 4-1, followed by a Lance Rymel run-scoring single.
Boise extended the lead to 12-1 in the fifth, sending 11 men to the plate, with Batista's blast to dead center the big hit, his first homer in 118 at bats this season.
Spokane would chip away at the lead, plating two in the sixth, two in the seventh, one in the eighth, and four in the ninth - but came up short.
Nathan Dorris got his first win with the Hawks, tossing two shutout innings of relief, while Eric Brooks allowed five runs on eight hits to take the loss.
Batista went 3-for-5 with three RBI, with Rymel going 3-for-4 with two runs scored in the win. Both Kim and Jeimer Candelario each had 2-for-5 nights with three RBI. Hirotoshi Onaka went 4-for-5 with two RBI and Joe Maloney went 3-for-4 in the loss for the Indians, who had a season-high 18 hits in the loss.
The final game of the series and final game of the 10 day, nine game homestand is tomorrow, with James Pugliese meeting C.J. Edwards at 7:15 p.m.
