SPOKANE VALLEY – Starting pitcher Peyton Olejnik expertly weaved his way through five challenging innings for the Tri-City Dust Devils (17-14) Friday night, but the 6th inning got both him and his team in a 3-0 loss to the Spokane Indians (12-19) at Avista Stadium.
Olejnik (1-3) had to navigate a surprising gauntlet of five Tri-City errors, two each in both the 1st and 3rd innings. The tall righty committed one of those himself, on a wide pickoff throw to first. Also, Spokane had runners in scoring position both in four of the first five innings and a runner at third in three of those, but Olejnik found a way to post zeroes and move on. The most challenging of the frames came in the second, with a double and single back-to-back putting runners at second and third with one out. Olejnik produced back-to-back strikeouts to leave the runners where they were.
The Dust Devils threatened in the 1st inning, with leadoff man 3B Caleb Bartolero drawing a walk and moving to second on a wild pitch. 1B Matt Coutney then singled to right and Bartolero got the wave home, but Indians RF Max Belyeu fired home on a hop to get Bartolero and pick up his fourth outfield assist in three games. The visitors then got a runner in scoring position in the 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th innings but came up empty each time…