Edmonton Riverhawks Advance to North Division Championship Game
2025-08-10
After defeating the Victoria HarbourCats 8-7 the Hawks take their first-ever trip to the North final
Box ScoreBy Larry Read
EDMONTON, AB—
The Edmonton Riverhawks are moving onto the second round of the West Coast League playoffs. For the first time in franchise history, the Riverhawks have won a first round series as they defeated the visiting Victoria HarbourCats 8-7. Edmonton wins the best of three affair two games to one. There were 2312 spectators taking in the history making game at RE/MAX Field on Sunday. The Riverhawks scored eight runs on seven hits and committed one error. Victoria had seven runs on ten hits and had two errors.
Riverhawks head coach Jake Lanferman took it all in stride when asked what the victory means for the franchise. “Each year, we are trying to progress and move to the next step. I really think we have a special group this season. We have shown it countless times. It has been so much fun to watch. Hopefully we can continue to play good baseball heading into Tuesday.”
It was by no means an easy victory.
After beating the Riverhawks 3-1 Saturday in Game 2, the HarbourCats got on the sticks in the top of the first. #45 Tanner Beltkowski and #18 Dillon Lopez hit back to back singles off Edmonton starter #21 Myles Chamberlain but couldn’t be pushed across.
The Riverhawks answered quickly in their half of the inning and with authority. #48 Max Stagg moved into the lead off position and responded with a single to left. After #16 Kyle Yip was hit by a pitch, #35 Trent Lenihan singled to left field to load the bases. Stagg scored on a wild pitch by Victoria starter # 34 Taylor Patrick to open the scoring. Kip and Lenihan scored on a single by # 5 Anthony Kodama to right field. #4 Jaxon Fox stepped in and singled to right field. He was brought in on a sacrifice infield hit courtesy of #12 Stevie Waters. Fox would plate on a single to right off the bat of# 3 James Cote. The Riverhawks notching six runs on four hits and two Victoria errors in an inning where nine Edmonton batters went to the plate. The home side was up 6-0.
The HarbourCats got on the scoreboard in the fourth inning. Lopez and #22 Jake Butler hit singles and were brought home on a single to left field courtesy of # 27 Isiah Afework. That made the score 6-2 Riverhawks.
Edmonton added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh. Yip was hit by a pitch, Lenihan followed with a single and both were driven home on a two out single to left by #1 Shiryu Sato. Sato was tagged out going back to first base but not before the Riverhawks went up 8-2.
Victoria scored again and a lot in the top of the ninth inning. They sent ten men to the plate. #32 Jack Johnson hit a looper over second base and scored with the bases loaded when reliever #2 Austin Egan hit Afework. Egan then hit the next batter pinch hitter # 37 Marcus Janovsky to bring home Butler who earlier singled. That made the score 8-4. The Harbourcats added one more when #6 Tristen Buehring hit a sacrifice to left field which allowed #17 Connor Ross to scamper home from third. Victoria cut the deficit to a single run (8-7) when Eagan served up a double to #3 which scored two runs. Egan was replaced by #11 Brandon Craven who got Lopez to fly out to right field to end the inning and earned the save, facing two batters in his outing.
Chamberlain earned the victory going eight and a third innings. He was pulled after loading the bases in the top of the ninth inning. Chamberlain gave up nine hits, struck out seven, surrendering five runs and faced 34 men. At one point, he retired 13 Victoria batters in a row.
Patrick threw six innings, giving up six runs, on five hits with four strikeouts and two walks. He faced 27 batters as he was tagged with the loss.
Offensively: Lenihan was 2-4 with two runs scored. Sato was 1-3 with two runs batted in and a run scored. Waters and Cote were 1-3 with one run batted in. Fox was 1-4 with a run scored and Kodema was 0-2 with two runs batted in.
Lopez was 2-5 with a run scored while Afework was 1-3 with three runs batted in for Victoria.
Lanferman reflected on game three saying it had a bit of everything starting with six runs scored in the bottom of the first. “Then we allowed their starter to get into a bit of a rhythm and made it more challenging for us. The Sato hit (in the bottom of the seventh) gave us a little more insurance. You see how critical that insurance was in the end when anything could happen. They strung a couple of hits together and it’s a ball game. Kudos to our guys. You could crumble when things don’t go your way. Great job by our guys to stick with it.”
The Riverhawks will now tangle with the Bellingham Bells in the winner-take-all WCL North Division Final on Tuesday. The Bells rallied from a 2-0 deficit to sore twice in the eighth inning, one more in the ninth to erase being down 3-2 and added one more in the 10th to eliminate the Wenatchee AppleSox 4-3 in the third and deciding game of their first round series. The Bells had nine hits and one error. Wenatchee had three runs on four hits. The Bells/Riverhawks Divisional Final has a 7:05 PM MDT opening pitch on Tuesday night at RE/MAX Field.
Looking for tickets in advance? Go to tickets.gohawks.ca to secure yourself a seat. Follow along with the game at @RiverhawksGames on X and keep up with everything happening with the Hawks on Instagram, Facebook, @EdmRiverhawks, and TikTok. See all the latest news at riverhawksbaseball.com.
If you are unable to cheer on the Riverhawks live, you can watch the contest free on West Coast League TV (https://wcleague.watch.pixellot.tv).
The Southern Division Final has the Portland Pickles hosting the Corvallis Knights. The Knights eliminated the Bend Elks two games to one in their first round series. Corvallis won at home on Sunday 10-0.