Falcons Take Opener
- Updated: June 20, 2018
The Kelowna Falcons picked up their third win in a row with a strong offensive display from Ryan Fish and Dan Pruitt, who hit his second home run of the season, for a 9-2 victory over the Yakima Valley Pippins in the opener of their three-game series on Tuesday night at Yakima County Stadium.
The Falcons wasted no time getting the offence going in the way of a three-run opening frame beginning with Ryan Fish reaching base for the first of his four times in the game with a walk. Cody Crowder would move him to third with base hit to right field before Taylor Wright powered a ball to the wall in center field to bring a run home on the sacrifice fly and get the Falcons ahead by a 1-0 score.
Dan Pruitt was next at the dish and after getting behind 1-2 in the count, he hammered a ball up and over the left field fence for a two-run home run, his second of the season and just five batters into the game, the Falcons had a 3-0 lead on Matt Driver and the Pippins.
Jared Akin went to the bump for the Falcons and, despite some runners getting on base, was able to keep the Pippins scoreless before the Falcons went back on the attack offensively, helped by some mistakes from Yakima Valley.
The Pippins made four errors in the 3rd inning, which resulted in two Falcons runs to come home and stake Kelowna to a 5-0 lead before Yakima Valley got on the board on an RBI groundout and cut the deficit to 5-1.
Crowder brought home Fish on an RBI single in the 4th inning and pushed the lead to 6-1 with his team best 11th RBI of the season and set up what would be another big inning coming up in the 5th frame.
Trent Tinglestad led off with a single before Jake Fischer got on with a base hit with Tylor Nixon bringing both of them home with a two-run double to the right center field gap and was later brought home on a Fish RBI single to extend the Falcons lead to 9-1.
In the bottom half of the inning, Pruitt displayed his hot hand at first base, snagging a line drive and touching the bag at first to complete the double play. Head Coach Bryan Donohue likes what he sees from his first baseman, “He’s locked in right now. He’s playing with so much confidence and barreling up every he sees. It’s fun to watch guys when they are on fire like that.”
Yakima Valley brought in a run in the 6th inning to end Akin’s night before handing off to the bullpen for three scoreless frames to close out the game, including a 1-2-3 inning by Travis Martizia in the 8th. Akin picked up his second win of the season while Matt Driver, the Pippins starter, took the loss.
For the second straight night, Coach Donohue was impressed with what he saw from the pitching side of things, especially when the night was handed off to the bullpen, “We were able to get ahead in the count early and that kind of dictates what an inning is going to be about,” commented the bench boss, “When they were able to find runners on base and get guys on, we were able to refocus and get the job.”
The Falcons (6-7) continue their road trip on Tuesday with the second game of their three-game set against the Pippins (6-7) with the first pitch being set for 6:35 PM. All games can be heard on the Falcons Broadcast Network HERE with the Voice of the Falcons, Trevor Miller.
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