Northwest League -- Hawks hammer away at Bears

YAKIMA -- Bob Didier had no doubt heard the same words before, and probably from the same person.

But it was probably still somewhat reassuring for the Bears manager when his 81-year-old father, Mel, summed up Sunday's events by saying with a hint of southern drawl, "Play long enough, and you'll get your (rear) kicked."

Which his son's team had in fact done courtesy of the Boise Hawks, 11-5, before an announced crowd of 1,641 at Yakima County Stadium.

There are of course varying degrees of backside booting, but during a Northwest League season now down to its final 10 games, Yakima has absorbed its share.

En route to a 23-43 record the Bears have been beaten 15 times by five runs or more. And this time they trailed the heavy-hitting Hawks 11-1 through seven innings.

"They're obviously a dangerous club," Bob Didier said, "and they came out swinging tonight. We don't hit home runs and we're not a big-inning team, so when we win games its going to be 4-3 or 3-2."

Or 4-2, as in Saturday night's triumph in which T.J. Hose blanked Boise through the first six innings. And that means Yakima still can win the three-game series, which concludes tonight.

Mel Didier, a senior adviser for the Texas Rangers in his 57th year of professional baseball, was passing through Yakima en route to Spokane, where the Rangers' Northwest League affiliate leads Boise (38-28) by five games in the Eastern Division.

He watched the Hawks spot Yakima a 1-0 lead, then score four times in the second inning, three in the fourth, three in the sixth and one more in the eighth

On a team hitting a collective .288 the term "bottom of the order" is clearly a misnomer, as evidenced by Sunday's box score.

Kyler Burke, Michael Brenly and Marwin Gonzalez -- batting seventh, eighth and ninth -- were a collective 7-for-10 (Boise totaled 13 hits) with seven runs scored and five driven in.

Burke, the right-fielder, was 3-for-3 with three runs scored while middle-infielder Gonzalez finished 2-for-4 with a two-run double in the second, an RBI groundout in the fourth and a run-scoring double in the sixth.

"Their No. 9 hitter is a guy I'd like to have over here," Didier said, "and I'd hit him second or third."

Gonzalez is presently batting .284 -- higher than all but one Bear -- with 39 runs batted in -- which tops Yakima's leader by 12.

Bearing the brunt of the Hawks' onslaught was starter Ryan Cook (1-2), who yielded nine hits and seven earned runs through four innings and Ricardo Taveras, who allowed three runs through two.

Cook surrendered Drew Rundle's seventh homer, a two-run shot in the fourth. And Taveras walked three hitters to become the league leader in that department with 46.

But for the Bears there was positive news on that front, with David Cooper claiming sole possession of the team's single-season record. He earned three free passes, running his total to 60 and besting the 1994 mark of 57 set by Charles Nelson.

The other Yakima bright spot was Anthony Smith, who doubled twice and singled in five at bats. He scored once and drove in his team-leading 27th run.

"In baseball," Didier said, "one day it works and the next day it doesn't. Today it didn't work."

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