By Cody Schmidt

It was an absolute gem for Edmonton Riverhawks starter #33 Halen Knoll tonight, making his second appearance of the 2022 season. Knoll went 7.0 innings for the second game in a row and threw a total of ten strikeouts against Ridgefield Raptors batters across that span. Despite finding himself pitching plenty of full counts, Knoll only walked one batter. His pitch count finished at 114 tosses with nearly 70% of pitches thrown for strikes. Because of the two runs allowed (only one of which was earned), Knoll was the losing pitcher tonight as the Riverhawks bats could not recapture their zest from yesterday.

Only combining for three hits and one walk, the Hawks were silenced at the plate. The final thirteen Riverhawks to bat were sent away in order, and the last hit was in the 4th inning. It’s not to say that the batters weren’t seeing pitches well, sixteen out of the twenty-seven outs made by the Hawks were grounders. The team just couldn’t seem to get the ball past the outfield the whole game.

The Raptors piled on in the 8th inning as #35 Graham Seltzer and #44 Brendan Wabick combined in relief. All four runs in the frame came off Seltzer, who after getting a one-pitch first out was unable to secure another. Instead the Raptors singled, walked, stole three bases, and hit a triple and a sac fly to bring home the insurance runs. Wabick faced the last two batters, inducing the sac fly and a pop up to catcher #6 Eddie Saucedo.

While the Hawks were unable to string together any hits, they had a strong approach at the plate as they combined for only four strikeouts, a stark difference from the double-digit totals against the Bells on the weekend. Despite the shutout, the Riverhawks will dust off and try one more time to get their first win against the Raptors tomorrow night.

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It’s less than a week until the Riverhawks are back at RE/MAX Field! Get your tickets for the June 13 Home Opener or any other one of the wild and wacky promotional nights at tickets.gohawks.ca