Series Tied Up, As Hawks Can't Get Past HarbourCats
2025-08-09
One inning of trouble sends the Hawks to a Sunday afternoon rubber match
Box ScoreBy Cody F. Schmidt
It was a tricky night for the Edmonton Riverhawks as they couldn’t manage to get ahead of the Victoria HarbourCats in a 3-1 loss. While the Riverhawks combined for 6 hits and a pair of walks, they left a bevy of players stranded and could only squeak across their single run in the 5th. With 6943 fans in the stands the Hawks still did a great job battling with Victoria, only allowing runs in the 3rd as the inning got away from starter Riley Barrett.
The Riverhawks turned it on in the 3rd as #12 Stevie Waters led off the half with a single and a steal. # 1 Shiryu Sato followed with a hard hit ball, but it would end up counting as a fielder’s choice as Waters got picked off running back to second. Sato would steal second before #16 Kyle Yip would single and steal as well to put both runners in scoring position. Unfortunately a pair of fly balls would spoil the Hawks’ first good chance at scoring. The Hawks would get on the board in the 5th thanks to a two-out walk to Sato followed by a steal. Yip would smack a single up the middle to drive Sato home and break the shutout.
The four-year Riverhawk #31 Riley Barrett was locked in from the get go, in his second ever WCL postseason start. He retired the side in the 1st with incredible ease and 12 pitches. The 2nd got away from Barrett as the HarbourCats notched three runs off of five hits and walk. Barrett was back to stumping the Cats in the 3rd, as he tossed a 1-2-3 frame with this third swinging K. Riley would continue to churn through HarbourCats into the 5th, where after his third and fourth back-to-back swinging Ks, he’d allow a pair of singles that would finish hisouting. Finishing with 4.2+ IP, Barrett had 7 strikeouts, all swinging, 7 hits, and one walk on three earned runs.
Taking over for the last out of the 5th was #15 Jack Becker, who induced an easy ground ball to secure the frame. He continued to blast through Cats in the 6th with a three-up-three-down inning, then just gave up a single in the 7th. #11 Brandon Craven got the 8th, and he worked through it with just a single allowed. Finishing up with the 9th was #14 Tate Dearing, who hit his first batter, but then retired the rest of his side, aside from an intentional walk.
The loss to Victoria sends us to the tiebreaker game tomorrow afternoon. The 1:05 start at RE/MAX Field will be the decider to see which team heads to the North Division Championship Tuesday night. That single game series then sends a winner to represent the North in the WCL Finals on Thursday evening.
Tickets for tomorrow afternoon will be available shortly at tickets.gohawks.ca. Don’t miss your chance to cheer on the Hawks in the deciding game tomorrow!