By Cody F. Schmidt

The Bellingham Bells were able to best the Edmonton Riverhawks in game two of the WCL Divisional Series. This evens the round between the two teams and makes tomorrow night’s matchup a winner-takes-all affair. The scoreboard remained blanked until the bottom of the 8th, as the Bells pulled ahead thanks to a trio of bunts that befuddled the Hawks’ defence.

The fans in Bellingham were treated to an astounding pitcher’s duel as the Riverhawks’ #18 Riley Barrett faced off against Nic Peterson. Both starters kept the game scoreless through the 5th, with only five hits and one walk allowed between the two sides in that span. With neither side budging, it took until the back third of the game for much action to begin. Barrett would finish after 5.0 frames on the mound, striking out three and giving up a trio of singles. Battling out of multiple full counts and extended ABs, Barrett’s pitch count rose a bit too quickly for him to be able to contend for a quality start.

Taking over for the Hawks in the 6th was #44 Kai Fyke, as he has re-joined the team late in the season, Fyke pitches on back-to-back nights. While Fyke got out of the 6th without a run allowed he still had to face a leadoff single and a pair of walks. Thankfully a runner caught stealing and a pair of easy defensive plays locked in the inning and held the tie. After a first pitch out in the 7th, Fyke ran into trouble from a single and two walks that loaded the bases. Making the call to swap arms, Coach Lanferman brought in #2 Austin Egan to try and recover the inning. Doing so with aplomb, Egan worked a shallow fly out and a swinging K to get out of the jam and keep the game scoreless. The Bells broke through in the 8th from a bevy of bunts. Drawing a leadoff walk from Egan, three straight fair balls off bunts led to a hit, an error, and a sacrifice play to score a pair of runs. #43 Rory Lampe took over with a pair of runners and quickly dispatched them with a K and a runner caught on the base paths.

Unable to pull ahead in the 9th inning, the Riverhawks will look to tomorrow night as this best-of-three series becomes a Monday night single elimination game. The series will wrap up in Bellingham tomorrow and the winner of that game will face either the Wenatchee AppleSox or Victoria HarbourCats, as that series will also run to game three. Stay tuned to gohawks.ca and @RiverhawksGames for up-to-the-minute news as the Hawks try to push to round two!