Falcons Visit Pippins
- Updated: June 19, 2018
The Kelowna Falcons continue on their six-game road trip and look to build off of a strong series win in Wenatchee as they make their way to Yakima to face-off against the Yakima Valley Pippins beginning on Tuesday night at Yakima County Stadium.
2018 Season Series
Tuesday, June 19th @ Yakima County Stadium (6:35 PM)
Wednesday, June 20th @ Yakima County Stadium (6:35 PM)
Thursday, June 21st @ Yakima County Stadium (6:35 PM)
Friday, June 22nd @ Elks Stadium (6:35 PM)
Saturday, June 23rd @ Elks Stadium (6:35 PM)
Sunday, June 24th @ Elks Stadium (6:35 PM)
2017 Season Wrap
The Falcons come into the 2018 season after making the playoffs for the second time in three seasons in 2017 where Kelowna finished atop of the North Division during the first half of the season with a 17-10 record before wrapping up the year with a 28-26 record and were one of four teams to qualify for the postseason. The Falcons met with the Victoria HarbourCats before bowing out of the playoffs in two games to their Canadian foes.
The Pippins finished the 2017 season with a 28-26 record and qualified for the playoffs after finishing with the second-best record in the West Coast League’s South Division and matched up against the Corvallis Knights in the opening round of the playoffs which saw Yakima Valley get a victory in the opening game of the series before eventually falling to the Knights.
2017 Season Series
The Falcons had some very good success against the Pippins a season ago, winning five of the six games in the season series. Kelowna swept Yakima Valley in their first series of the season at Elks Stadium before the Falcons took two of three games against the Pippins at Yakima County Stadium.
A Series Ago
The Falcons enter their series against the Pippins after picking up their first series win of the season as they took two of three games against the Wenatchee AppleSox on the weekend. After falling in the opening game of the series by a 6-2 score, the Falcons rattled off a 7-5 Father’s Day win on Sunday before picking up back-to-back wins with a 9-6 victory to close out the series. It was the Falcons first series win against the AppleSox in Wenatchee since July 2010.
The Pippins come into their set against the Falcons with a 6-6 record in their first season in the North Division, moving from the South with the addition of Portland into the WCL, and played non-league games over the weekend against the River City Athletics on Saturday and against the Northwest Honkers on Sunday. Their last WCL action was against the Pickles, a series in which resulted in the Pippins being swept in Oregon.
Returnees
Kelowna:
P Cal Hehnke (Junior, University of Nebraska-Omaha)
INF Taylor Wright (Freshman, University of Maryland)
INF Matt Voelzke (Sophomore, George Fox University)
OF Lucas Soper (Junior, University of British Columbia)
OF Davis Todosichuk (Junior, Okanagan College)
OF Trent Tinglestad (Sophomore, Everett Community College)
Yakima Valley:
P Matt Driver (Junior, Lewis-Clark St. College)
Who’s Hot
Kelowna:
INF Dan Pruitt (6’5”, 245 lbs/Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA)
The two way-player who can field and pitch has certainly found his groove in the right-hand batter’s box over the course of the last few games. The freshman from Seminole State has hits in each of his last six games with three of those being multi-hit games. None of those hits bigger than a ball he catapulted over the left field fence for a two-run homer on Sunday night in the Falcons 7-5 over the AppleSox. Pruitt is tied with Cody Crowder coming into the series with a .357 batting average for the best on the team.
OF Austen Butler (5’11”, 185 lbs/Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, CAN)
As the season moves along, one of the nine Canadians on the Falcons roster is starting to hit the ball hard and is getting rewarded for it. Butler got into every game of the Falcons last series against the AppleSox and was very effective, scoring a run in each of the three contests including collecting a big RBI single in the 9th inning on Sunday night that tied the up. The University of British Columbia sophomore leads the team with three doubles and collected two of them in Monday’s 9-6 series finale against Wenatchee.
P Cal Hehnke (6’3”, 215 lbs/Grand Island, Nebraska, USA)
He has been one of, if not the most, reliable arms out of the bullpen for Head Coach Bryan Donohue and his last three games of work displays that, having gone his last 7.2 IP without having allowed a run to cross the plate, and not even getting close to it. The University of Nebraska-Omaha junior has a 2.13 ERA in five games this season, including 20 strikeouts to just 1 walk along with picked up the victory in Sunday’s win and the save in Monday’s series clincher.
Yakima Valley:
INF Cody Jeffries (5’8”, 165 lbs/Valencia, California, USA)
The freshman from the University of San Diego has been on a torrent stretch of play to start his WCL career, hitting .371 over his first 35 at-bats. Jeffries is second on the team in average and has collected multi-hit games in four of his last five league games and is tied for the team lead in hits with 13. The Valencia, California native is also a threat when he gets on the base paths, having stole four bases on five attempts and leads the team with those four steals.
U Sam Mitchell (6’0”, 180 lbs/Surrey, British Columbia, CAN)
The man who is tied with Jeffries in team hits is the senior from Montana St. University at Billings in the likes of Sam Mitchell. The Surrey, British Columbia native is tied for the team lead in home runs with a pair while leading the club in RBI’s with 13. Mitchell has collected hits in 10 of his 12 league games this summer including a hit-streak that lasted the first seven games of the season.
P Hunter French (6’3”, 180 lbs/Richland, Washington, USA)
There are plenty of pitchers that have gotten off to a hot start with the Pippins in the summer but the junior from Central Washington in Hunter French has been exceptionally good to start the season. French has struck out 18 batters while walking just 3 in 15 innings pitched so far this season and owns a 1-1 record with a 2.40 ERA and is set to get the ball in the second game of the Falcons and Pippins three-game set in Yakima.
The Falcons continue their six-game road trip with a trip to Yakima Valley to take on the Pippins beginning on Tuesday night with all games in the series scheduled for 6:35 PM. The two teams then make a trip up to Kelowna and Elks Stadium for three games starting on Friday. All games can be heard on the Falcons Broadcast Network HERE with the Voice of the Falcons, Trevor Miller.
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