Joseph Henrickson
Staff Writer

On a cold, wet April weekend Little League games throughout the region were being rained out.  At Mt. Tahoma Athletic Complex, the Pierce College Raiders picked up the rakes and got their home field ready to play.  Such is baseball life in the Northwest, despite having to deal with the rain during the game.

While all weekends don’t present these kinds of challenges, the Raiders don’t let a little rain get in their way.  After two rain delays they were able to put Game One of the four game weekend series in the books.

Game One, highlighted by a four for four performance by Wesley Hoskins that included a home run and three RBI was like a chess match through the first three innings until the Raiders offense thawed out.

They pummeled the Green River Gators 12 to three giving Darrien Moran his four wins as he pitched seven and one-third innings.

Game Two got underway as soon as the players pulled the tarps off the field.  Both teams huddled in the dugouts as the showers came down and rushed out as soon as it settled so they could prepare the field for play again.

Tarps off, more dirt applied, rakes put up and all the players started to warm up for another game.

As starting pitcher, Elliot Morris was warming up his arm, a crowd of people gathered around the bullpen to watch.  Some with clipboards and others with video cameras, they were scouts from MLB teams like the Phillies and the White Sox and others.

At first pitch there were about 9 radar guns clocking each pitch that was thrown by Morris as he topped out at a fascinating 93 miles per hour with his fastball.

Morris started out a little shaky through the first couple of innings giving up a run in the first but settled down and got in a zone as the game went on and didn’t allow another run.

The final eight batters that Morris faced all struck out as he totaled 13 K’s in the short five inning game.

With only 15 possible outs in five innings, Morris taking care of 13 of them on his own pretty much sums up his performance.  Pierce went on to beat the Gators by the ten run rule 11 to one and win game number two.

D’Aundray VanSlyke hit a two run home run over the left field fence in the third inning as he finished the game two for two with those two RBI.

Everybody in the lineup contributed in one way or another as the team wrapped up the day by putting the tarps back on the field once again and looked forward to a Sunday afternoon game.

The Gators were the home team for Game Three and Four but that didn’t change the outcome very much.

Although they didn’t get beat via the ten run rule on Sunday they did suffer another two losses as the Raiders swept the four game series and continued their win streak to five games in a row.

Pierce currently sits in third place in the standings with a record of 15 and nine on the season and six and two in conference play.  Their toughest competition looks to be the Lower Columbia Devils whom they played April 13 and 14.

The Devils had won 22 games in a row and had a 22 and two record and an eight and zero conference record.

To keep up with the season or know more about the team, go to www.pierce.ctc.edu/athletics/baseball/schedule To find out what happened in those games.