Riverhawks Start 2025 with a Series Sweep of the Victoria HarbourCats
2025-06-05
7-1 win the third in a row to kick off the WCL season
Box ScoreBy Larry Read
EDMONTON-
The Edmonton Riverhawks have swept their first West Coast League regular season series. The Riverhawks took all three games from the Victoria HarbourCats. On Thursday night at RE/MAX Field, the Riverhawks won by a score of 7-1. Edmonton moves to 3-0 on the year while the HarbourCats fall to .500 (3-3). The announced attendance was 3,012.
“The first thing I was impressed with was the way we played,” stated head coach Jake Lanferman. “You take guys from a bunch of different schools and you want them to become as cohesive as quick as possible. Kudos to them. They played a hell of a series. Defensively we did a great job. Pitchers threw strikes which allowed our defense to work well. Our hitters flat out hit. It was pretty impressive to watch.
The Riverhawks played some aggressive baseball in the second inning of this series capper. #30 Jason Green led off the inning with a double to right field. Two batters later, he tried to score from second when #5 Anthony Kodama hit a single up the middle. Green was thrown out at the plate.
The Riverhawks tallied runs four times in the bottom of the third. #6 Robert Phelps walked, then with the bases loaded, Phelps scored on a wild pitch to make it 1-0. Two batters later, with two men on, Green hit a cannon over the fence in right field for a three run homer to up the count to 4-0. Three of the four runs were charged to Victoria starter #18 Robert Sanford. He surrendered three hits, striking out two and walking two.
Homegrown product #8 Matthew Ridsdale got the start for Edmonton. He went four innings giving up a hit and a walk and struck out four for his first victory of the season.
The Riverhawks add to their run count in the bottom of the fifth. #35 Trent Lenihan returns to the Edmonton line up after a successful season at UBC. He launched a rocket to left field which hit the wall, both # 16 Kyle Yip and Green score and it’s 6-0.
Victoria found the scoreboard in the top of the seventh. # 28 Logan Shepherd led off the inning with a walk off of reliever #24 Reece Devlin. Devlin loaded the bases and with one out, he walked #9 Bobby Filler Jr to bring Shepherd across. Devlin, the fourth Hawks pitcher of the contest was promptly pulled in favour of # 33 George Naramore who was able to get the final out and left the damage at a single run.
In the bottom of the 7th, Yip reached with a leadoff walk, then was able to come around and score off a warning-track sac fly from Stagg.
Green was 2-3 with three runs batted in for the Riverhawks. Lenihan went 1-4 with two RBI. #48 Max Stagg went 1-4 with a pair of runs batted in. Yip was 1-3 with three runs scored.
For Victoria: #45 Tanner Beltowski and # 27 Xander McFee were both 1-3. #10 Curtis McKay was 1-4. The HarbourCats will return to Vancouver Island for their home opener on Friday.
While the homestand continues for the Riverhawks. The Bellingham Bells are the next opponents starting tomorrow night. It’s a 7:05 PM MDT opening pitch at RE/MAX Field. It is Baseball Goes Bollywood night and includes My Radio 580 broadcasting the game live in Punjabi. It’s also the return of Friday Night Fireworks with Uncle John’s Fireworks after the game.
The Bells and Riverhawks are meeting for the first time since the 2024 WCL North Division playoffs. The teams went the distance with Bellingham prevailing two games to one.
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.
EXTRA INNINGS- With the sweep, The Riverhawks all-time record against Victoria is 10-14.