WENATCHEE — Walla Walla Community College brought home a pair of NWAC East Region baseball victories over Wenatchee Valley, 10-1 and 5-4, on Wednesday.
In the opener, Jake Simmons went the distance for the Warriors. He gave up six hits and the one run while striking out nine Knights.
“Jake gave us an incredible effort in the first game,” WWCC coach Dave Meliah said. “We took control early and then just kept adding on, and that’s what you need to do to put a game away.”
The Warrior offense backed Simmons’ effort with three first-inning runs, plated two more in the third and sixth innings, and capped the victory with three in the ninth.
Michael Kilpatrick and Dylan Wilbert each had three of WWCC’s 15 hits in the game.
Wenatchee Valley put up more of a fight in the nightcap, as the Warriors needed an extra inning to secure the victory.
The teams each scored a lone run in the first inning, and the Knights took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth.
Walla Walla responded with two runs in the fifth, and added a sixth-inning run to make it 4-2.
The Knights scored single runs in the eighth and ninth to tie it up and force extra innings.
“We had some opportunities to stretch the lead in the second game, but didn’t take advantage of those and it almost cost us,” Meliah said. “But we got a second chance in extra innings and took advantage of it.”
Griffin Davis pitched eight innings for the Warriors. He was relieved by Levi Rudolph, and then Talon Derrick in the ninth.
“Talon came on with the winning run on base in the ninth and got some big outs to allow us to get into extras,” Meliah said. “He showed some mental toughness.”
In the 10th, Austin Kopacz had a leadoff double, and scored what proved to be the winning run on Jarod Paul’s sacrifice fly.
The Knights got a runner on with two-out in the 10th, but Derrick closed it out.
“We played some very good defense on the infield, and I think it gave our pitchers a lot of confidence to just throw strikes and let the guys behind them make plays,” Meliah said.
The Warriors, now 4-2 in NWAC East play and 14-8 overall, next host Spokane for a 1 p.m. twin bill on Saturday.
