Dust Devils Walk Off in Bergman's Final Start

Christian Bergman may not have picked up the win in his final regular season start, but Ryan Casteel made sure another great Bergman outing was not wasted. The Tri-City Dust Devils' 20-year-old catcher knocked in Jaron Shepherd with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, 2-1, in front of a crowd of 1,390 fans at Gesa Stadium on Tuesday night.

Casteel hit the second pitch he saw from Volcanoes left-hander Phil McCormick (1-1) into right field for his first hit of the night. Salem-Keizer right fielder Brett Krill's throw to the plate beat Shepherd but the catcher Dan Burkhart couldn't handle the toss and Shepherd was called safe. It was the second walk-off win for the Dust Devils this season, their first one coming on a Jayson Langfels home run.

Bergman (7-5, 2.59) was brilliant at Gesa Stadium once again. The Southern California native retired the side in order in six of his seven innings and allowed just one run on two hits to go along with six strikeouts. Volcanoes lead-off man Jesus Galindo led off the fourth inning with a double and Kaohi Downing quickly drove him home to give Salem-Keizer a 1-0 lead.

Tri-City tied the game in the sixth when first baseman Jordan Ribera hit a fly ball to centerfield, scoring Tyler Massey. Massey went 2-for-4 in the game and extended his hitting streak to 18 games. The streak is tied with Eugene's Justin Miller for the longest in the Northwest League this season.

Dust Devils relief pitcher Rafael Suarez (1-0) picked up the win after throwing two scoreless innings. Suarez ran into trouble in the top of the ninth but struck out Volcanoes cleanup hitter Mike Murray and got Brett Krill to ground out, leaving the bases loaded. McCormick picked up the loss for the Volcanoes.

The Dust Devils and Volcanoes will play game two of the series tomorrow night at Gesa Stadium. Ricardo Ferrer (2-5, 4.45) will get the start for Tri-City and go up against right-hander Cameron Lamb (3-6, 5.53). It will be Cougar Night at the ballpark. Fans are encouraged to wear their WSU gear and support the Cougars. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:15 pm.

Dust Devils Baseball... "It Will Blow You Away!"