Edmonton Riverhawks Season Comes to a Close

2025-08-13

Hawks Fall to the Bells 5-2

By Larry Read

EDMONTON, AB—The Edmonton Riverhawks entered uncharted waters as they played host to their first ever West Coast League North Division final. The key word turned out to be “waters”. The final—a ‘one-game-winner-take-all” affair featured a one hour and 47 minute hour rain/lightning delay.

At the time, the Bellingham Bells were leading the Riverhawks 4-2 after seven innings of play. The Bells went onto win 5-2 to capture their fifth straight WCL North Division title.

There were 7,439 fans on hand at RE/MAX for the first ever divisional final to be played in the Alberta capital.

The Bells scored five runs on nine hits and had one error. The Riverhawks had two runs on seven hits and committed three errors.

Bellingham advances to the league championship final on Thursday (Aug 14). Their opponents will be the Portland Pickles, who won the South Division title with a 6-5 come from behind victory over the Corvallis Knights. The championship will be played in Portland.

In this game, Bellingham threatened early. In the top of the first, they loaded the bases after Riverhawks pitcher #8 Matthew Ridsdale walked #9 Aiden Aguayo , #7 Andrew Lamb reached base on a fielder’s choice and #18 Blake Balsz walked. Ridsdale got #11 Kalen Kirkpatrick to strike out. # 21 Romanic Quiban ground the ball back to Ridsdale for the easy throw to first to retire the side without giving up a run.

# 48 Max Stagg led off the bottom of the first for Edmonton with a single up the middle. #16 Kyle Yip hit a ground ball which was bobbled by Bells third baseman Kirkpatrick. Yip beat the throw to first to put two aboard. After #35 Trent Lenihan flew out, # 32 Jason Green was hit by Bells starter #14 Devyn Hernandez to load the bases. Hernandez rung up a strike out and a ground ball out to keep the game scoreless.

The Riverhawks open the scoring in their half of the second. #3 James Cote singled into the gap in left centre field and scored when Stagg blasted a shot to the wall in left center and wound up with a double.

The Bells looked to even it up in the top of the third. Aguayo led off with a single, stole second and made it to third on a throwing error. With two out, Balsz hit a solid rope to Riverhawk shortstop #1 Shiryo Sato jumped up to make the catch to end the inning.In the fourth, Bellingham loaded the bases for a second time. # 3 Noah Meffert walked. That was followed by back-to-back singles off the bats of #1 Noah Figuered and #16 Brock Sell. Meffert scored on a wild pitch and the game was tied at 1.Edmonton regained the lead in their half of the inning. #12 Stevie Waters walked and scored on an RBI bloop single to left off the bat of Stagg.

The Bells played some ‘small ball’ to their advantage in the top of the sixth. Kirkpatrick singled to lead it off. Then both Quiban and Meffert executed perfect bunts and beat the throw to first base to load the bases. Riverhawks reliever # 9 Owen McConnell got Bellingham to pop up, strike out and ground out to nullify the threat.

Bellingham loaded the bases again in the seventh. McConnell gave up singles to Lamb and #8 Noah Cassie. After he elected to go to third but the throw wasn’t fast enough to get Lamb, Balasz got on base on the fielder’s choice. That prompted the Riverhawks to replace McConnell with #2 Austin Egan. After he got a strikeout, Quiban found a hole between left and center field. That brough home Lamb and Cassie. Quiban would later score on a sacrifice fly to center by Meffert. The Bells took their first lead of the contest 4-2. McConnell wound up taking the loss. He pitched two innings, surrendering three runs on four hits, striking out three and walking one.

Mother nature had to be a part of this contest too. The game was halted after seven due to a lightning delay. When it resumed, the Riverhawks changed pitchers. #15 Jack Becker was on the hill. So did the Bells, with them sending #25 Josh Flaugher to the mound.

The Bells took advantage right away. Sell walked and moved to second on a successful bunt by Aguago. Both advanced on another bunt-this one by Lamb. Sell scored on a passed ball to make it 5-2.

The Riverhawks gave it all they had. Bottom of the ninth: #4 Jaxon Fox led it off with a flare into right field. Three Bells converged and the ball dropped between them. Fox wound up with a double off Bellingham reliever #28 Colt Peterson. Peterson picked up the save going one inning, giving up a hit and striking out one.

“Crazy things can happen, “stated Riverhawks outfielder Max Stagg about the delay. “We were saying in the clubhouse that things were getting weird (referring to the long rain/lightning delay). Its baseball. Bellingham is a really quality program. We knew that from inning one to inning nine, they were going to throw punches at us and keep chipping away. It is what it is. I am proud of our guys. To go through the rain delay and still come out and give everything they had in the eighth and ninth innings.”

“I saw a couple of early bases loaded jams that we were able to work our way out of,” assessed Riverhawks coach Jake Lanferman. “ We had a 2-1 lead moving to the later innings. They bunted extremely well and did it to the point that it made it difficult for us to defend. A call goes either way and it would have been different perhaps. I thought we played quality baseball but that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Quiban led the way offensively for Bellingham. He was 2-5 with two runs batted in. Meffert was 1-2 with a run scored and a run batted in. Aguyago went 1-4.

Cote was 2-4 with a run scored for the Riverhawks. Stagg went 3-5 with two runs batted in. Sato was 1-4.# 12 Chihiro Sato was the winning pitcher in relief for Bellingham. He pitched three innings striking out two.

‘We obviously fell short of advancing to the championship final, “said Stagg. “As a group, we showed up everyday with the will to work and the will to grind it out together. It is a long summer. We did a really good job of jelling as a team and working together as one collective unit and family and tried to achieve the ultimate goal. It was an amazing summer.”

“This group exceeded every expectation, “Lanferman assessed looking back at 2025. “They are first class guys. They represented our city well and our baseball club too. They made me extremely proud. I am going to miss these guys. It’s only two months of the year but it seems like a lot longer. I am excited to watch them (the players) in the spring and I am already excited about recruiting for next year.”

EXTRA INNINGS: The Riverhawks honored a number of local champions before the contest. Three-time Olympian and new performance manager of Canada’s 3x3 basketball program Michelle Plouffe threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

With the attendance at this game, the Riverhawks new WCL single season record set this year was 148,660 people. Lanferman on what made the 2025 Riverhawks so special: “I think the resilience and the grittiness to play baseball early on in the summer was very apparent to us. The group molded so well and so fast. When you have character guys leading and great baseball players that can bridge that gap—it’s a recipe for success. The guys did an incredible job.”

Lanferman on Edmonton establishing a ‘winning culture’: “ I think it started with the returning guys from last year. Playing our baseball (hard nosed, gritty), having fun while doing it. Making them feel comfortable and improving as baseball players. I think this group established what we can do—what this city has for baseball players. It is going to be fun to watch how we grow moving forward.’