Riverhawks Take A Road Series Win in Kelowna

2025-06-12

Shutting out the Falcons 7-0, the Hawks made it happen with 9 hits and 9 walks

By Larry Read

KELOWNA, BC—

The Edmonton Riverhawks took a ‘big bite’ out of the ‘Little Apple” as they kicked off their first road trip of the 2025 West Coast League season.

The Riverhawks won two of three games in Kelowna, BC against the Falcons. Edmonton won rubber game of the series Thursday night (June 12) at Elks Stadium by a score of 7-0. The Riverhawks are now 6-3 on the year. Kelowna falls to 3-9 in the campaign.

After beating the Falcons 4-1 Tuesday (June 10), the Riverhawks fell 3-2 on Wednesday (June 11).

In this game, Edmonton opened the scoring in the 1st inning. # 6 Robert Phelps led off with a single and scored on an RBI base hit off the bat of #35 Trevor Lenihan. That run came off Falcons starter and losing pitcher Asher Clark.Clark went five innings giving up five hits, one run with three strike outs and two walks. He is 0-1 on the season.

In the 6th, the Riverhawks added four more runs. Two walks and a batter hit by a pitch loaded the bases. Falcons reliever # 25 Beckett Lund walked #28 David Ossanna which scored Lenihan for the game’s second run. That brought up #5 Anthony Kodama who also walked, bringing in #16 Kyle Yip from third to make it 3-0. The two free runs sent Lund to the Kelowna showers, to be replaced by Roanan Cason. Cason gave up a single to #13 Grant Yzermans, scoring Ossanna, and bringing the score to 4-0.

Moving to the 8th, Edmonton added their final two runs. With two outs, Kodama reached first on an error by Falcons’ shortstop. Kelowna pitching again loaded the bases and Kodama scored when #48 Matt Stagg was given a free bag. Finally, that brought up Lenihan who knocked an RBI single. Lenihan wound up 2 for 3 with two RBI on the night. Lenihan now has 12 RBI-that is the third most in the West Coast League.

Phelps was 2 for 4 with a run batted in. Kodama was 1 for 4 with an RBI. Ossanna went 1-3 with an RBI.

#20 Reece Hemmerling started and went four innings to notch his first win of the year. He surrendered two hits and had two strikeouts. Hemmerling was the first of four Riverhawk pitchers.

Looking back at the first two games of this series, which the teams split, Edmonton coach Jake Lanferman stated, “In the first game, our pitchers did a great job to keep Kelowna in check. #41 James Block threw extremely well for us followed by our bullpen. Lenihan had a huge opposite field triple to put us ahead. Yip with the late homer gave us extra insurance and we played very well defensively.”

On the series as a whole, Lanferman said, “In game two last night, I really liked our offensive push at the end of the game. We only had a couple of hits throughout seven innings but found a way to rally against a strong arm to get the tying run to third base in the ninth. It was unfortunate that we didn’t end up tying it up.”

The Riverhawks head into the Thompson Region to meet up with the Kamloops NorthPaws at Norbrock Stadium starting tomorrow. Opening pitch is 7:35 PM MDT. You can watch the game live at https://wcleague.watch.pixellot.tv/. #55 Carson Latimer the right hander will get the start for Edmonton.

Next home action for the Riverhawks is Tuesday, June 17th when the Bellingham Bells come in for another three-game set at RE/MAX Field with opening pitch at 7:05 PM MDT.

It's Life’s A Beach, Aloha Night. There will be limbo contests, hula dancing, Jimmy Buffet jams, a special Hawaiian Hawk Tropic bevy. Teachers who show their ATA card at the box office will get a ticket to the contest for half price. On top of all that fun it will also be “Toonie Tuesday”.

Head over to tickets.gohawks.ca to grab yourself a seat. Follow along with the game at @RiverhawksGames on X and keep up with everything happening with the Hawks on Instagram, Facebook, @EdmRiverhawks, and TikTok. See all the latest news at riverhawksbaseball.com.