By Cody F. Schmidt

The series is evened out as the Bellingham Bells shut down the Edmonton Riverhawks’ attempt at another late comeback. Losing 8-4, the Hawks surrendered half of the Bells runs in the opening inning, but were able to score some runs of their own in the later half of the game. The result puts the Hawks at 14-8 on the season and snaps their winning streak at 5 games.

The Riverhawks broke onto the board in the 5th, leading off #36 Jakob Poturnak sped to first to beat out the throw on an infield base hit. Then #26 Russell Young belted a double to the warning track, leaving a pair in scoring position. #1 Kaden Zarowny would earn the RBI on a fielder’s choice that plated Poturnak. A 6th inning run was started by #47 Will Vasseur smacking a triple to right field, then racing home on a groundout to first base. The Hawks tacked on runs in the 8th, as #3 Michael Soper reached on a fielder’s choice that removed Zarowny who had walked. Vasseur got another multi-base hit, and this time earned an RBI as he pushed Soper across. After the Bells swapped arms, #5 Bryce McFeely crashed a single into the gap to score Vasseur.

The 1st started off strong for starter #29 Daniel Orfaly. The righty pumped a three pitch strikeout against his first batter and induced a fly out to right on the next pitch. Things seemed to break apart quickly though, as the Bells were walked three times and hit three singles to score four runs. Orfaly settled down for his next few innings, with the only Bells reaching on an E4 and a hit batter across his next fourteen hitters faced. Ending up with 5.0 innings of work, it would have been a spectacular start for Orfaly if he wasn’t marred by the 1st inning runs.

With the 6th starting, #2 Austin Egan came to the mound, while he tossed a pair of strikeouts in his first inning a walk was pushed around by a pair of singles to score a fifth run for the Bells. Egan had a a better 7th, just surrendering a single walk to move through the frame. The next appearance was the domain of #24 Reece Devlin, A leadoff triple was temporarily held at third after a fantastic diving play by Devlin on a come backer, but a bang-bang play at first to the next batter scored the run and stood as a single. After walking a batter, Devlin was removed with just 0.1 IP and the bags loaded. #43 Rory Lampe took over, and two of Deviln’s runners scored on a high flying double to right before Lampe closed out the 8th. Brought in for the 9th, #55 Jackson Sherren only lasted for a single batter whom he walked before being removed for injury. #20 Max Benton was the replacement arm and he started off by nabbing a ball for a 1-6-3 double play to clear the bags, then a strikeout looking to finish the frame.

The series with the Bells finishes off tomorrow night in the deciding game, as RE/MAX Field gets spooky thanks to Deadomonton for Homers and Halloween. Come in your favourite costume and pretend that October 31 came a couple months early. You can get your seat for tomorrow and every other home game this season at gohawks.ca/tickets.