Riverhawks Drop Series to Bells in Busy Loss

2023-06-29

A 9-6 finish as Hawks come close to the comeback

By Cody F. Schmidt

The Bellingham Bells bested the Edmonton Riverhawks tonight, piling on runs against the Hawks’ relievers. There were a few momentum shifts, but the Bells were able to keep adding on to stay ahead of Edmonton through the whole game and to take the series.

While the Hawks were bruised by the arm of the Bells’ starter Armbruester, early, they were able to break through and put some runs across in the 4th. With the sole base runner in the first three innings coming from #42 Tom Poole getting hit by a pitch, #9 Skyler Chang broke open the 4th with a leadoff single. Poole then strode to the box for his second plate appearance of the game, and he demolished a line drive straight up centre field for a triple, scoring Chang. The liner from Poole went one foot further than his league-leading 409 foot homer in Nanaimo last week, but with the deep dimensions at RE/MAX Field, the ball was still behind the fence. With Poole now on third, #10 Jonny McGill took advantage and tapped a ball on the ground to score the Hawks’ DH.

In the bottom of the 6th Poole kept the productive night going with a leadoff base hit to left that was a laser liner. McGill followed up with a walk, keeping his on-base streak intact, now at eighteen games. After #28 Mark Ossanna laid down a textbook sac bunt to move the runners over, #14 Tommy Takayoshi came up huge with a knock to left that scored a pair and took him to second.

After giving up runs in three straight innings, the Riverhawks struck back in the 8th. The bottom half started with McGill getting hit by a pitch, then Ossanna smashed an opposite field double to put both runners in scoring position. A wild pitch allowed McGill to score, then Takayoshi creamed a ball to right to plate Ossanna. #30 Noah Boughton crushed a double for the third straight oppo hit, putting Takayoshi on third, but with a new Bells reliever on the mound three straight strikeouts ended the inning before the Hawks could catch up.

It was a very solid start for #3 Dallin Harrison, with just a problematic 2nd inning that allowed the Bells to score four times. Outside of the 2nd Harrison was electric, retiring eight straight Bells between the 3rd and 5th. While the Bells snuck one more run out of Dallin in the 6th, Harrison ended up striking out four across his six innings of work.

Newcomer #26 Zach Foden took the mound for the 7th inning, and he was cruising through it aside from a hit batter, but a deep fly ball to left-centre took a wild hop at the wall and got away from Calabrese. What should have been a fly out instead ended up as an inside-the-park tow run homer for the Bells.

In the 8th it was #37 Chas Wheatley pitching, he was stung by two walks issued as when the runners played a double steal, the toss to second went wide and ended up allowing the Bells’ eighth run. The trailing runner then caught Wheatley unaware on a straight steal of home, as both of Chas’ walked batters came around. It was #16 Tylor Jans who got the 9th inning assignment, tossing a perfect frame with a pair of strikeouts.

The Riverhawks return to RE/MAX Field tomorrow night with a new series against the Wenatchee AppleSox. Go to tickets.gohawks.ca to grab your spot at the stadium, and put on your sparkliest getup for Girls Rock night with a Taylor Swift dance party. Keep in touch with the Hawks online on our socials at Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.