Billygoats baseball opens season with three wins in four games

PATEROS – The Billygoats varsity baseball team got off to a solid early season start over the last two weekends with three wins in a pair of doubleheaders. On the road at Manson, Saturday, March 23, Pateros split a pair of games with the Trojans losing the first, 9-0, but bouncing back to take the second by seven runs, 12-5.

Following a week’s rest, the Billygoats hosted Oroville and easily took the first game, 21-11, but faced a more determined Hornets team in the second win by a single run, 12-11. Oroville had some problems in the first game when throwing and catching errors between pitcher and catcher allowed Pateros to bounce back from a run down, 4-3, to score eight unanswered runs on walks and errors before the inning was over.

Head coach Shane Kelly has a solid lineup of six seniors in Max Ewing, Dan Rossman, Jesse Ginter, Zane Dodge, Alex Vargas, Jeremy Piechalski, all returning veterans, along with juniors Kobe Thixton, Erich Foster, and Scott Moore, sophomore Lucas Miller, freshmen Jose Martinez and Nicholas Rupeiks, and a couple of eighth graders, Nate Hart, and Zane Thixton.

Coming off spring break the Billygoats will host Lake Roosevelt, one of the better teams in the Central Washington 2B, for a single game starting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9.