Kelowna Falcons

Series Sweep

The Kelowna Falcons rallied from a 6-1 deficit and helped by a four RBI performance and a walk-off hit from Ryan Fish completed their first series sweep of the season, defeating the Yakima Valley Pippins by an 8-7 score on Sunday night at Elks Stadium.

Drew Williams impressed in his second game in Kelowna, going 3-for-4 with 4 RBI’s while Ryan Fish made a diving catch to close out to the top half of the 9th inning than played hero in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI base hit to close out a sweep for the Falcons over the Pippins and mark the third win in a row for Kelowna.

The Pippins got the scoring going in the top half of the 1st inning with back-to-back doubles to lead off the game but the Falcons had an answer in the way of an RBI single from Williams, driving home Matt Voelzke to tie the game after a full inning of play.

Yakima Valley opened up the largest lead of the ballgame when they sent nine batters to the plate in the 2nd inning and scored five runs, including a two-run single from Elijah Greene to give the visitors a 6-1 lead after an inning and a half.

The Falcons offence had a response in the bottom half of the frame, collecting a pair of runs with two outs on a Dan Pruitt RBI double followed by a run scoring single from Taylor Wright to cut the deficit to 6-3 before the Falcons had a big inning of their own in the 3rd.

After Jake Fischer and Tylor Nixon reached on walks, Voelzke drove Fischer in with an RBI double to put two on for Williams and he smacked a single up the middle to cash in two runs off of Pippins starter Jake Moberg to get the game tied at 6-6, where it would stay for a while.

Falcons starter Jared Akin lasted only three innings and gave way to the bullpen, which was terrific for a third straight night, giving up just one run on four hits in five innings of work, including a big double play induced in the 6th inning with the bases loaded and one out for the Pippins from Zac Bygum.

“I sensed that our pitching staff made sure that sure that the game stayed close and they did a great job tonight in coming out ready and relying on some guys for some key outs,” commented Head Coach Bryan Donohue, “The double play in the 6th, the caught stealing in the 8th, we made some big plays tonight.”

The next inning was where Yakima Valley took the lead again and it came off from the lead-off man in the frame as Nick DiCarlo took Bygum deep to left field for a solo home run and a 7-6 Yakima Valley lead.

Williams continued his strong game with an RBI single with two outs in the 8th inning, sending a ball through the hole between 1st and 2nd for his 4th RBI of the night and another two-out run got the game tied again for Kelowna and set the stage for Fish in the 9th.

After making a diving catch in left field in the top half of the inning, Fish came to the plate with two-on and one-out before sending a looping ball into right field that plated Wright from second base and gave Kelowna the series sweep over the Pippins, their third win in a row and their second walk-off victory of the summer.

Striking out against reliever Tanner Inouye his first time up as a pinch hitter in the 7th inning, Fish was able to get to him in their second meeting, “He went with a first pitch changeup that I was a bit out in front of,” said Fish, “so I sat back a little bit on the second one and found a way to hit the ball hard.”

After Yakima Valley picked up the series win down south before heading to Kelowna, Fish stated that there was a bit of a chip on the Falcons shoulder to come out and avenge that, “That definitely gave us an edge for sure,” said the outfielder, “It wasn’t a good taste in our mouth coming back home and we just had to make sure to do the right things to get us back to winning.”

Newcomer Zane Lindeman earned the victory after pitching scoreless 8th and 9th innings while Tanner Inouye was saddled with the loss in the back-and-forth contest. The Falcons (9-9) have a day off before beginning a three-game mid-week series against the Port Angeles Lefties (10-11) on Tuesday night at 6:35 PM. Tickets are available online HERE or at the door ahead of the first pitch.

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