An outstanding job by a trio of pitchers and a pair of clutch two-out hits proved to be the difference for the Boise Hawks in a key 4-3 victory over Salem-Keizer tonight.

Jeff Antigua allowed a Drew Biery solo home run in four and two-thirds innings of work tonight – striking out five batters, with newcomer Eduardo Figueroa tiring late in his two inning stint, allowing a pair of runs.  But it was Dionis Nunez (pictured left) who slammed the door – striking out big Chris Dominguez with the tying run at third in the seventh, then setting the side down in order in the eighth and ninth innings for his second save of the season.

While the pitching was solid in working around four Hawk errors, key hits helped in the victory.  Hak-Ju Lee singled with one out in the fifth, stole second, moved to third on a Logan Watkins groundout, and scored on a Brett Jackson single to give Boise a 2-1 lead.  An inning later, Jose Valdez provided the winning runs with a clutch two-run double (listen to the radio call 
valdez2B.wma), scoring Jae-Hoon Ha and Greg Rohan.

BACON: Watkins, who was named Northwest League Hitter of the Week earlier in the day, had a single in the third inning, extending his hit streak to 12…Lee had two hits, extending his hit streak to seven, while reaching base in his 26th game in 27 outings…Jackson had two hits and has reached base safely in all 15 games as a Hawk…with a win in one of the final two games of the series, the Hawks can clinch their first series win against S-K since 2002…of the 30 games played by the Hawks this season, 13 have been one-run games (Boise is 9-4 in those contests)…Franklin Font, who skippered the Hawks during the first two series of the season, is back in town in his official capacity – as the Cubs roving infield instructor, along with base-running instructor Bob Dernier, and minor league strength coach Doug Jaros.

LOOKING AHEAD: In the coming days, look for Hawk Talk interviews with our Player of the Games to be posted (including Watkins, Rohan, Danny Keefe, Ryan Sontag, Josh Whitlock, and Robert Whitenack).