By Cody Schmidt

After a disappointing 2-1 loss last night, the Edmonton Riverhawks will be doing their best to regroup for todays mid-series game in Bellingham Washington. The Bells grabbed a late lead and got in front of the Riverhawks’ best attempt at evening things out.

When it comes to the Bellingham Bells, even after a loss, manager Jake Lanferman isn’t worried.

“From previous experience, I know that Bellingham will have a strong team this summer, so I'm excited to see how we stack up against them early on in the season. I'm eager to see how our team looks for this first series against them, and if we play our hard-nosed brand of baseball, things will work in our favour.”

The Hawks did keep the bells on the ropes for most of last night’s game, behind 7 innings of shutout pitching. Looking to keep the momentum on the mound tonight is #16 Tylor Jans. Hailing from St. Albert, the 6’4” Jans will be the second local product brought our to pitch against the Bells in a row. Pitching for the University of Louisiana Monroe during his junior year, Jans covered 51.0 innings over seventeen games and kept a 1.59 WHIP.

Jans also is one of the team members returning from last year’s club. Working as a reliever, Tylor held a perfect ERA over 4.0 innings, only allowing a single hit in that span. Now getting the opportunity to start, tonight we will see Tylor take over and hopefully carry the Riverhawks to their first victory of the year.

Backing up Jans is a lineup not too different from last night’s:

1- #36 Jakob Poturnak - 3B

2- #2 Jack Wheatley - SS

3- #10 Jonny McGill - RF

4- #28 Mark Ossanna - 1B

5- #19 Will Gardner - LF

6- #4 Carson Friesen - DH

7- #9 RJ Bourget - CF

8- #12 Eddie Saucedo - C

9- #11 Ren Yokoyama - 2B

P- #16 Tylor Jans

Friesen and Bourget get to make their season debuts tonight, and look for McGill and Ossanna to try and repeat last night’s multi-hit efforts.

Tonight’s road game starts at 7:35 PM MST, and will be broadcast on WCL Live.

If you want to follow along, keep an eye on Twitter at @RiverhawksGames for inning-by-inning updates on the game action.

Ready for the Riverhawks to come home? Tickets are now available for all home games in the 2023 season, including the Tuesday June 13 home opener. Grab yours today!

Follow what River, Kid, and the rest of the Riverhawks are up to on social media. Follow the Hawks at @EdmRiverhawks on Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.