By Nathan Krohn
Pasco, Washington - The Hawks pitching staff delivered their first shutout of the season and the team snapped an eight game losing streak, defeating the Tri-City Dust Devils by a score of 4-0 on Thursday night.
The Hawks took an early 2-0 lead in the second inning, putting together a two-out rally kicked off by a Scott Burcham infield single. Marcos Derkes followed with an RBI triple and scored on a pass ball on the very next pitch.
The two-run lead would suffice for Hawks starting pitcher, Javier Palacios as he allowed just two hits over five shutout innings and picked up the win.
The Hawks played add-on in the late innings, scoring one run in the seventh inning on a Luis Castro RBI single before Kevin Padlo launched a solo homerun in the eighth inning to give the Hawks a 4-0 lead.
Alec Kenilvort came on and pitched the final two innings, shutting down the Dust Devils as the Hawks broke an eight game losing streak and took the game by a score of 4-0.
The Hawks (18-35) and the Dust Devils (29-24) will meet for game three of this five game series tomorrow night at 8:15 p.m.
Notes: Kevin Padlo hit his seventh home run of the year… The Hawks pitched the first shutout of the season and first since August 25, 2014… Tyler Massey made his first rehab appearance with the Hawks and went 1 for 2 with a triple… The Hawks avoided owning the longest team losing streak since 2010.