By Cody F. Schmidt

A rain-delayed start only put off a pile of runs against the Edmonton Riverhawks as the Kelowna Falcons evened the series. Bested 11-4, the Hawks couldn’t come back as Falcons piled runs on in six innings and seemed ready to dismiss any comeback attempts.

The Falcons started the scoring, with runs off starter #42 Jonah Prokott in the 1st and 2nd. A couple of short rallies including a ground-rule double in the slippery warning track sent Kelowna ahead early. Prokott surrendered another run in the 4th. The Falcons didn’t overwhelm Prokott at any point, but they were able to put together 8 hits against him to collect those 3 runs.

Reliving in the 5th, lefty #28 Michael Nastro took over and ran into quick trouble. With a pair of walks and a hit batter starting the appearance, the Falcons then were able to capitalize and keep the bases loaded with a run coming in. Nastro would be swapped out for the sidearmer #30 Tyler McGowan without recording an out in his appearance. McGowan would run into a similar fate with all three of Nastro’s runners scoring on a sac fly and a single. When the dust cleared in the top of the 5th, the Hawks found themselves down 7-0.

Another rough inning for the Riverhawks came in the 6th, as the Falcons faced off against #31 Noah Bourgeois. Taking Bourgeois for another wet field ground rule double led into a two run homer. Settling down in the 7th, Bourgeois had the Riverhawks’ first 1-2-3 inning of the night with a strikeout and a pair of ground balls leading into the stretch.

#34 Dakota Todd got the bump for the 8th, pitching a clean inning with a trio of fly outs. Returning for the 9th inning Todd gave up a walk and a pair of hits to run into a bases-loaded jam.

The Riverhawks got on the board in the 6th, scoring #35 Trent Lenihan off a double play ball. That was the first runner to cross the plate for the home team despite a few chances earlier in the game, including a bases-loaded situation in the 3rd, and runners on the corners in the 4th.

More runs scored in the 8th for Edmonton as the bases were loaded from two walks and an infield hit by #52 Royce Hale. Then the Falcons walked #26 Russell Young, gifting their second run. This was followed by a wild pitch that let #9 Mahidutt Tabata run home. A wild toss on the following pitch led to a play at the plate, with the Falcons winning out on the inning-ending tag.

The Hawks rallied again in the rain, with a pair of singles being followed by #54 Sam Kane fly being missed in right, scoring the fourth and final Hawks run.

The Riverhawks and Falcons finish the series off tomorrow morning with a special 11:00am start. Over 7000 kids will be in attendance to help celebrate team mascot River’s birthday. Wednesday’s game is officially sold out, but you can get your spot at every other Riverhawks game by going to gohawks.ca/tickets