By Cody F. Schmidt

With another lopsided win, the Edmonton Riverhawks are barreling towards the postseason thanks to a great game against the Nanaimo NightOwls. Already clinching a playoff berth last night, the Hawks are now just fighting for placement, something the W over Nanaimo helps greatly with. Every Riverhawks batter ended up on base at least once in the 9-2 victory, and the team totalled fourteen hits.

The Riverhawks’ bats haven’t let up since they left Victoria at the end of July. Another early lead came via #1 Kaden Zarowny’s leadoff single and #51 Royce Hale’s RBI double. While the 1st inning rally came to an abrupt end after a pop up and a fly out, the Hawks continued their run of scoring as soon as possible. Not wanting to be quiet in the 2nd, #14 David Krahn crushed the first pitch of the inning over the wall in left for a solo homer. This was just Krahn’s second AB with the Hawks, coming in last night as a pinch hitter for Poturnak.

After no Hawk making it on base from the 3rd through the 5th, #12 Rex Watson was able to reach first thanks to an E3 in the 6th. #25 Trey Dunn pushed Watson into scoring position with a single, then #26 Russell Young sent Watson home with a double that bounced in the outfield before rolling into foul territory.

Upping the score in the 8th, Dunn had another single, followed by #35 Trent Lenihan sending them both into scoring position with a double. Young hit his second RBI double of the game to send the first two runners home, then after Krahn’s single a passed ball brought Young across the plate. Finally, Krahn made it home on a fielder’s choice hit by #13 Brayden Morris as the Hawks stacked on four runs to lock the game in.

Adding on some 9th inning runs just for kick, Watson was plunked with the first pitch of the inning before Hale singled to send him to 3rd. Back-to-back singles from Dunn and Lenihan each earned an RBI,

Making his first start of the season in the penultimate game, #52 Evan Wilde cruised through his first two innings, then escaped a jam with a pair of runners in scoring position thanks to back-to-back strikeouts in the 3rd. While he allowed the leadoff batter aboard in each of the middle innings, it only stung Wilde in the 6th. A leadoff walk on four pitches ended up coming around for Nanaimo after another walk and a single. While the NightOwls scored a run off the base hit, a heads-up play stopped any momentum Nanaimo had thanks to catching the middle runner trying for third. In his 6.0 innings of work, Wilde blew past his previous longest outing this season while he struck out seven NightOwls. Only giving up the run in the 6th, Wilde tossed a quality start, and consistently stranded NightOwls runners.

In his fifteenth appearance of the year, #2 Austin Egan took over in the 7th and tossed an effective 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout looking. The same goes for #24 Reece Devlin, who retired the NightOwls in order in the 8th on just eleven tosses. #54 Sam Kane made a surprise appearance on the mound in the 9th, and gave up a run on a single, E6 and passed ball before the win was secured.

With only one game left in the regular season, the playoff picture is starting to become clearer. The Bells and HarbourCats both lost their games tonight. No team will be able match Wenatchee’s second half win total of 16, which means that all play moves to the looking at the full season record for all teams. This puts Edmonton’s 32-21 record in second place for the overall standings behind Wenatchee and the Hawks are positioned to lock in that second seed placement tomorrow. The added bonus to the higher seed placement is the potential of an extra first round home game if the series is tied after two games, and home field advantage as the team would progress into the divisional game.

The Hawks will secure the second seed if they can win tomorrow, OR if Bellingham loses tomorrow.

Keep your eyes glued to gohawks.ca and @RiverhawksGames for all the playoff updates!