Tigers’ Season Starts Slow

PRESCOTT -- During the third inning of the WP Tigers' first doubleheader game against Asotin, a visiting Panthers fan proudly shared that his team had gone 15 innings without any scores against it.

The Tigers took care of that with an impressive three-point roll in the 7th inning. But the well-executed attack wasn't nearly enough to take the sting out two disappointing league defeats to kick off the season for WP. The Tigers lost the first game, 9-3, and the second, 20-3.

"In the end, it wasn't our best baseball and I hope to see Asotin again," WP head coach Dustin Snedigar said. "We a capable of playing a lot better and we will continue to work hard to develop our baseball skills."

Despite pitcher Zach Bartlow's effort to contain the trigger-happy Panthers, Asotin knocked his balls high, far, low and fast to build a steady and solid lead.

"We started out slow in the first inning, but rallied in the 2nd and 3rd innings to get some base runners," Snedigar said. "However, we were unable to score and capitalize with those runs and left them stranded."

The Tigers had opportunities in those first several innings to keep the score close, he said.

Poor defending around home plate allowed the Panthers to score and avoid outs that could have ended their innings earlier.

" Zach Bartlow threw well enough early against a strong-hitting Asotin team, but we failed to support him with runs," Snedigar said about his team's performance in the first game.

That game's 7th inning gave a glimpse of the Tigers' potential on the diamond. Hits from Justin Zuger and Dalton Estes put them in play. David Herzog brought them home with a crowdpleasing triple. Herzog himself scored on a hit from Chris Manzano to make it 9-3 .

The Tigers carried their momentum into the second game -- at least for a little while.

WP loaded all bases in the 1st inning and some poor Asotin pitching allowed the Tigers to score from a walk. The Panthers kept the team to just one run.

"After the first inning, we struggled to find the strike zone with our pitchers and Asotin made us pay in the 3rd inning, scoring eight runs on only two hits," Snedigar said. "Chris Manzano threw well in the fourth and surrendered no runs, but could not follow it in the bottom of the fifth."

In that inning, Asotin's attack lit up the board with eight more runs before WP rallied in the bottom of the 5th with scores from Bartlow and Estes on a two-RBI single from Herzog. The final score, 20-3.

The Tigers play Burbank next week.

WP v Asotin

Game 1

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Asotin1020501RHE9122

Game 2

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