Ossanna’s Grand Slam Secures Sweep of the Lefties

2023-07-27

7-2 win makes for the Riverhawks’ first sweep of the season

By Cody F. Schmidt

The fourth straight W for the Edmonton Riverhawks, who have another big homer to thank for a win against the Port Angeles Lefties. Kicking things off with a 1st inning grand slam, the Hawks led through the whole game to secure their first series sweep of the season and win 7-2.

The Riverhawks wasted no time trying to recapture the spirit of last night’s win. #6 Brett Ott lead off the game with a four pitch walk, then stole a pair of bags. #14 Tommy Takayoshi and #10 Jonny McGill both also earned free passes to load the bases, then #28 Mark Ossanna CRUSHED a grand slam to immediately move the game into the Hawks favour. Edmonton would tack on another 1st inning run as #19 Will Gardner walked, and then was moved up and around from a #9 Skyler Chang walk and a Lefties E6. The Hawks earned an early 5-0 lead with only a single hit thanks to Ossanna’s power.

Another pair of runs came across in the 4th, this time a bit more earned as Ossanna and Gardner hit back-to-back singles to start the inning. After a sac hit from #12 Evan Overmars to move the runners up, Calabrese would get the third base hit of the frame to send both runners home.

It was another spectacular night on the mound for #16 Tylor Jans. This time getting to the 5.0 inning mark it was Jans’ longest appearance of the season, though he only tossed XX pitches. Finishing his outing with six strikeouts, Jans retired ten Lefties in a row between the 1st and 4th.

Bullpen innings started in the 6th with #35 Graham Seltzer tossing a 1-2-3 inning. In the 7th Seltzer let in a Lefties run in after a runner reached from a Hawks E4, then a triple sent the runner home. Graham faced a couple more issues in the 8th, as a single and a pair of wild pitches put a Lefties runner on third then came home on another hit. A double play bailed out Seltzer with only the single run in the 8th, then #33 Halen Knoll took over to clear the 9th. Tossing a three-up-three-down frame, Knoll made short work of the Lefties to finish the game

The Riverhawks now finish up their last road series of the year by heading to face the Wenatchee AppleSox over the weekend. This isn’t the last the Hawks will see of the Lefties, as the two teams will match up again at RE/MAX Field on Tuesday. Come catch the last home stand by going to tickets.gohawks.ca!