By Cody F. Schmidt

You can call them Fearless, as the Edmonton Riverhawks, clad in Swifties jerseys, took a 3-1 win over the Victoria HarbourCats. Carried by lights-out pitching from starter Halen Knoll, the Hawks knocked three runs in separate innings to stay above Victoria

With a massive shot in the bottom of the second, #15 Jonny McGill pushed the ball all the way to the left-centre wall for a sliding triple. He would get brought home a few batters later thanks to an infield hit by #25 Russell Young.

The Riverhawks took the lead in the bottom of the 5th, as #10 Demitri Shakotko got softly plunked to earn a free base, then #36 Jakob Poturnak lofted a ball into the left field gap for the go-ahead RBI. Adding on in the 7th, Poturnak earned another RBI driving home #3 Michael Soper who’d singled, stole second, and reached third on an error.

A bit of bad luck got the HarbourCats ahead in the 1st. Poturnak dove for a ball up the third base line, but his toss to first was bobbled to keep the runner safe. Despite a 5-4-3 double play later in the frame, the inning got extended enough to allow the runner to get across before a flyout finished the top of the 1st.

#33 Halen Knoll shut the HarbourCats down for the next innings, pitching a 1-2-3 2nd, then getting out of a bases-loaded jam in the 3rd by striking three batters out swinging. Knoll kept up the pressure in his 7.0 innings of work, ending with 8 strikeouts and not allowing a hit for an entire trip through Victoria’s lineup. His third start in a row making it through at least six innings, Knoll jumps back to the WCL lead in strikeouts with 21 tossed so far this season.

Finishing off the game on the bump, #38 David Stuart tossed a speedy 8th inning with a pair of strikeouts, then #16 Tylor Jans shut down the game with a three strikeout save.

The Riverhawks continue the series tomorrow afternoon with a special Saturday 1:05pm start so that fans can catch both the Hawks and the Oilers games. K-97 Classic Rock will also be helping to tickle your funny bone, as our in-game host Donovan Workun brings a whole troupe of comedians with him for a sketch-filled game! Get your tickets for Saturday and Sunday’s Father’s Day Trappers special at gohawks.ca/tickets