By Cody Schmidt

The Riverhawks are gunning for a playoff spot as they start their penultimate series of the season. With a 12-9 record in the second half, it should only take a few more wins to guarantee their way into the postseason. The AppleSox sit tied with the Hawks atop the Northern Division, and they’re both a game and a half above the Victoria HarbourCats (who happen to be Edmonton’s opponents in the final series of the year). Staying atop the North Division would guarantee the Hawks the second seed in the Playoffs, and they’ll be battling with the AppleSox to claim the second-half lead. If the Hawks drop below the Sox, then we will have to look at full-season standings, where the Riverhawks currently sit in third place, half a game behind the AppleSox.

While Edmonton fans will be glued to the WCL scoreboard every night to see where the Hawks end up next week, tonight they’ll also be tuned to the new series against the Port Angeles Lefties. The Hawks haven’t seen the Lefties since early June when Edmonton took the series 2-1, and things have not gone well for Port Angeles since then. Finishing the first half of the season at the bottom of the division, and currently sitting 7-15 in the second half, the Lefties have hit more than a skid when it comes to 2022. That should serve as a boon to the Riverhawks, who are coming off a 7-2 home stand, and a 14-10 July. The bats have been hot, and the pitching has been exceptional, including from WCL Pitcher of the Week Aren Alvarez. These three games against the lefties should offer a ton of potential for the Riverhawks to pick up some easy wins and tighten their grip on the second half.

Here’s your Riverhawks lineup for tonight:

1- #10 Clayton Loranger LF

2- #26 Kelly Corl - SS

3- #25 Tom Poole - RF

4- #33 Alex Stinnett - DH

5- #43 Austin Chouinard - 3B

6- #38 Jack Gurevitch - 2B

7- #8 Matt Masciangelo - 1B

8- #28 Mark Ossanna - C

9- #3 Aaron Stinnett - CF

P- Shaun Atamanchuk

As always, you can keep up to date with the game by following @RiverhawksGames on Twitter, and checking back here at riverhawksbaseball.com for a post-game recap. Peep the team on Instagram and Twitter at @edmRiverhawks.

You can watch tonight’s game on WCL’s streaming site WCL Live, and via the Lefties on YouTube.