Kelowna Falcons

Black Bears Claw Back

The Kelowna Falcons held an 8-1 lead through six innings of play before surrendering eight unanswered runs in a 9-8 loss in the series finale of a three-game set against the Cowlitz Black Bears on Sunday evening at David Story Field.

For the sixth straight game, the Falcons found themselves trailing as the Black Bears opened the scoring in the first inning. Austin Bell continued his hot stretch of play through the series with an RBI single, cashing in Ryan Kim from third base after he led off the game with a double to give Cowlitz a 1-0 lead.

The Black Bear lead did not last for long as the Falcons offence got going in the 2nd inning courtesy of back-to-back doubles from Taylor Wright and Trent Tinglestad to tie the game at one. Grant Suponchick drove in Tinglestad with a double of his own before Davis Todosichuk reached on an error that allowed Suponchick to score and gave the Falcons a 3-1 lead after one and a half innings.

After the early run against, Kelowna starter Trevor Brigden settle into a nice groove, hurling four scoreless innings and in the 4th inning, Cody Crowder extended the Falcons advantage even further with a three-run blast over the right field fence for his first home run of the summer and gave Kelowna a 6-1 lead.

Matt Land opened the 6th inning with a double before Steffen Torgerson doubled him home to push the Falcons lead to 7-1 with Taylor Wright driving him in moments later with an RBI single as Kelowna jumped ahead by an 8-1 score.

Brigden surrendered a run in the 6th inning but finished off a very strong performance on the mound and gave way to the bullpen with an 8-2 lead, where the Black Bears mounted their comeback.

Cowlitz scored a run in the 6th inning before tallying two in the 7th frame and headed into the 8th inning trailing by an 8-4 score.

The Falcons went through four different pitchers in the 8th inning, giving up 3 walks, a hit by pitch and an error which brought the game to an 8-7 Falcons lead before Blake Burton stood in with two out and the bases loaded. Burton took a Jared Akin fastball up the middle for a base hit which plated a pair of runs and put the Black Bears ahead by a 9-8 score.

Marty Maves came on in relief and for the save in the 9th inning for Cowlitz and got some defensive help on a diving catch made in right field by Ryan Kim to retire the first batter of the 9th inning in Crowder. Wright popped out to the 2nd before the game ended on a fly ball to center field off the bat of Lucas Soper and the Black Bears picked up the 9-8 victory.

Wyatt Hummel gets saddled with the loss for the Falcons while Christian Peters picks up the win and Maves collecting the save in the game. The Falcons aim to get back in the win column as they return home to Elks Stadium for a rematch of the 2017 playoffs as they host the Victoria HarbourCats in a three-game series, beginning on Tuesday, June 12th.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.