Thankfully, for the Devin Oil Hermiston Heat, last week is history.

After enduring a string of nine games in six days, Devil Oil continued its losing skid, stretching it out to 12 games after dropping a 9-8 decision to the Kennewick Jr. Bandits at the Duster Bowl tournament in Kennewick on Sunday.

This past week was as brutal as it could be for the Heat – scheduling wise. After having a doubleheader with Hanford moved from Monday to Tuesday, that created six straight days Devin Oil played, and three of the days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday) the squad played doubleheaders.

“We need to be able to handle some adversity,” Heat coach Brent Mattson said. “That’s what has been missing during our skid here.”

After taking an 8-3 lead into the sixth inning, starting pitcher Trevor Phillips left the game with the bases loaded, leaving Jacob Almaguer to try to minimize the damage. He wasn’t able to do so, however, and the Bandits had some timely hits and took walks to tie the game at 8-8.

Phillips, who has spent most of the summer with the Hermiston High School summer league basketball team, hadn’t pitched since the team’s season opener – a June 4 appearance against Pasco. But even without pitching for better than a month, he was able to work out of jams and pitched pretty well given the circumstances.

“He came out and he’s a bulldog,” Mattson said. “Sometimes I leave him out there a little too long because I know he’s so tough. He’s the type of kid that can make you look good by working through it, but I left him too long. That one is on me.”

When the Heat failed to push any runs across in the top of the seventh, the Bandits loaded the bases on walks by reliever Jacob Almaguer. Mattson was forced to bring the infield in to cut down a run at the plate, but a hard grounder snuck by Austin Kopacz at second base, allowing the winning run to score.

The competition level the club has faced during the nine-game stretch of the schedule has been what Mattson called “the toughest the team will see.” Against Oregon teams, Devin Oil is a sparkling 9-2. Against Washington teams, however, things are a bit shaky for Devin Oil, who are 1-13 against clubs across the Columbia River. Other than Moses Lake and Woodinville, all the Washington clubs Devin Oil has played are from the Tri-Cities area.

Tuesday, Hermiston went back into Zone 1 play with the Pendleton Pepsi Diamondjaxx in a doubleheader, but the scores were unavailable by press time. Full coverage of the game will run in Saturday’s issue of the Herald.

Devin Oil will play on Friday, hosting Hood River in a double-dip at 5:30 p.m. at Weber Field.