Rubber Match Forced
- Updated: June 20, 2018
The Kelowna Falcons has their three-game win streak come to an end on Wednesday night in a 14-6 loss to the Yakima Valley Pippins in the second of their three-game series from Yakima County Stadium.
Cole Pofec was the catalyst for the Pippins offence as he collected four hits and tacked on 6 RBI’s while Hunter French sat down the first 12 Falcons batters that he faced to help the Pippins force a rubber match in the three-game series.
Pofec started the scoring with a solo home run off of Kelowna starter Stone Churby in the 2nd inning with the Falcons offence being stymied by Pippins hurler Hunter French, not being able to get a hit before Dan Pruitt’s lead-off double in the 5th inning.
Yakima Valley added on a pair of runs in the 3rd inning before really opening the game up in the 5th with four runs on three hits, including a Pofec RBI single for his 3rd and 4th RBI’s of the night and helped extend the Pippins advantage to 7-0.
Taylor Wright inched the Falcons closer with a three-run home run to right field, his second home run of the season and road trip, to cut the deficit to 7-3 but Yakima had an answer with a two-run single by Pofec again in the 6th pushed the lead to 9-3.
The Kelowna offence continued to push and try to get the game close, adding another three runs in the 7th inning, fueled by lead-off back-to-back doubles from Trent Tinglestad and Lucas Soper but the bullpen couldn’t hold the score as two more Pippins runs scored in the 7th for a 11-6 advantage.
The offensive attack from the Falcons came a bit too late in time to get back into the ballgame, “It was great to see that we were able to get back into the game and pile up some hits and runs in the later innings but it just took a bit too long for the offence to get going,” said Falcons Head Coach Bryan Donohue, “We just weren’t sharp tonight and it’s just unfortunate that that many runs was the result of our pitching performance today.”
Jake Moberg highlighted a three-run 8th with a solo home run with two more runs coming into score to solidify a 14-6 Pippins win and force a rubber match of the three-game set for Thursday.
Coach Donohue says the killer instinct wasn’t there with his team’s pitching approach, “We got ahead of hitters throughout the game but just weren’t able to finish the job,” said Donohue, “When you get a hitter buried in an 0-2 or 1-2 count, we’d like to see our pitchers have a bit more of a killer mentality and we let their hitters back into counts and hit the ball hard.”
Stone Churby was saddled with the loss for the Falcons while Hunter French earned the win for the Pippins as the two teams will battle for the series win on Wednesday with first pitch scheduled at 6:35 PM from Yakima before the two teams travel north for a three-game series at Elks Stadium beginning 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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