Falcons Fall to Knights
- Updated: June 21, 2016
The Corvallis Knights were in town Tuesday night to kick off a three-game home stand against the Falcons. These two clubs faced off last week at the Knights’ home park in Oregon. The home side took two of three games, heavily out-slugging the birds. The Falcons hoped to rebound and return the favour on their own turf, fresh off a six-game road trip that didn’t go exactly how the boys from B.C. had hoped.
Tuesday’s series opener was a close affair in the early goings. Both clubs stayed off the scoreboard until the top of the fourth when Corvallis broke out for 3 runs against Falcons’ starter Blake Randazzo. The righty out of Edmonds Community College settled down after that, not allowing another run through seven innings pitched. The Knights would tack on two more to cement their victory by a score of 5-1.
Randazzo took the L, but he finished the game with an impressive stat line, allowing just 3 hits, and fanning 4 in his fourth appearance of the season. O’Keefe Hall came into the game in relief, pitching just a single inning, striking out two, and allowing 2 runs on 3 hits. AJ Sawyer closed out the game strong for the birds, tossing a hitless, scoreless inning.
The Falcons’ only run of the night came in the seventh inning, after Lane Lacrone singled himself aboard, then advanced his way around the bags on hits from outfielder AJ Sawyer (double) and catcher Vaughn Shapen (RBI single).
Falcons’ bench boss Bryan Donohue pegged Tuesday’s loss as a case of sitting back just a little too much. “Too many at-bats we just gave away. Guys just too passive.” That showed on the scoreboard, as the home club managed 8 hits on the night, but only a single run.
It’s a correction Donohue says the team is more than capable of making. “We didn’t do anything to put pressure on their pitchers. It’s easy to play D and pitch against that. We just have to grind out at-bats.”
A few Falcons came out swinging Tuesday, though. Shapen strung together 3 hits on 4 plate appearances, while Sawyer and Lacrone each added 2. Despite a few warm bats, Donohue thought the team as whole needed to be more aggressive. “We just have to be more dangerous from top to bottom. We just had too many holes in our lineup, I was just disappointed with the level of execution offensively.”
The Falcons will try again tomorrow; they’ll be back at Elks Stadium for a 6:35 PM start. Returning Falcon and WCL All-Star Max Carter is expected to make his season debut Wednesday in game two of the home series.
Story courtesy of Matt Inglis – Falcons Media
Photo courtesy of Matt Inglis
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