Canada Day Victory
- Updated: July 1, 2018
The Kelowna Falcons got a big effort from Grant Suponchick and the offence while the bullpen came through with a scoreless four innings of work as the Falcons earned a series win with a 6-3 Canada Day victory over the Victoria HarbourCats on Sunday afternoon at Wilson’s Group Stadium at Royal Athletic Park.
Suponchick had a 4-for-5 afternoon, hitting his first home run of the season while the Falcons offence hammered out 18 hits to match a season-high in the victory. Isaac Olson pitched three hitless and scoreless innings of relief with Cal Hehnke coming on for the save and helped the Falcons to a series win on Canada Day in Victoria.
Victoria started the game strong as they scored a run in each of the first three innings, including leading off the game with a lead-off home run off the bat of Blake Wagenseller to take a 1-0 lead before an RBI groundout in the 2nd inning pushed their lead to two runs with a passed ball bringing home the HarbourCats third run of the ballgame before the Falcons offence worked their way into the game.
Kelowna had gotten plenty of runners on base in the first four innings, stranding 8 runners on base with the Falcons being able to bring one run home in the opening four frames which was an RBI single off the bat of Jake Fischer to bring home Dylan Orick that got Kelowna on the board and cut the HarbourCats lead to 3-1.
Austen Butler fired a one-out single to left field and got on for Suponchick, who lined a two-run homer out to left field to get the game even at 3-3 and counted as the second of what would be four hits on the afternoon for Suponchick.
“I’ve been struggling with getting my timing down all summer so I was trying to get used to the timing and he gave me a fastball,” said Suponchick, “I was able to get through on it and tie the game and helped the offence come from behind.”
The bullpens came through with scoreless 6th and 7th innings before Kelowna took their first lead of the ballgame in the 8th inning, which was led off by a Suponchick double. He was brought in to score on an RBI single from Lucas Soper followed by a sacrifice fly off the bat of Matt Voelzke to push the Falcons advantage to 5-3.
Olson’s third inning of relief was another strong one, striking out the side before Trent Tinglestad came to the plate and knocked a laser of a solo home run to right field for his 6th of the season and a 6-3 Kelowna lead before Cal Hehnke came in a closed the ballgame out in the bottom of the 9th for Kelowna’s 8th win in the last 9 games and a series victory.
“That was a great response from our group, bouncing back from last night to pick up the win,” said Falcons Head Coach Bryan Donohue, “Guys knew we had a chance to bounce back and take that game in stride and come pick up a big win on the road in a tough place to play.”
Isaac Olson collected the win, going 3 innings allowing no hits while walking a batter and striking out four with Cal Hehnke earning his 3rd save of the season. Reliever Gunnar Friend was saddled with the loss for Victoria.
“Alvarez competed hard and got us to a point in the ballgame where our bullpen could take over, which was the story for me,” Donohue continued, “We made some big pitches in some really big spots and it was good for our guys to close it out.”
The Falcons (14-10) make their way to Port Angeles to take on the Lefties (11-15) for the start of a three-game series beginning on Monday, which is set for a 6:35 PM start time. All Falcons game can be heard on the Falcons Broadcast Network with the Voice of the Falcons, Trevor Miller.
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