Offensive Explosion
- Updated: July 9, 2018
The Kelowna Falcons collected a season-high 14 runs and 20 hits as they earned their third win in a row with a 14-8 series-opening victory over the Cowlitz Black Bears on Monday night at Elks Stadium.
Taylor Wright went 4-for-4 with three RBI’s while Dan Pruitt, Grant Suponchick, Ezra Samperi and Matt Voelzke collects multi-RBI games as the Falcons offence came alive for their third win in a row and improved to 3-1 on their current six-game home stand.
The Black Bears scored first in the top half of the opening inning but the Falcons were quick to answer that as they sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs in the bottom half of the frame. Pruitt and Suponchick each picked up RBI singles with two outs to put Kelowna ahead before Samperi knocked home a pair with a bases loaded two-run single that gave the Falcons a 4-1 lead after just one inning.
“I’ve been confident in going the other way on off-speed pitches and was able to do that to get a run in the 1st inning,” explained Falcons infielder Dan Pruitt, “Being a big guy, I’ve had to get used to seeing a lot of off-speed pitches and I’ve adapted to it.”
Kelowna’s offence continued swinging the bat in the 2nd inning as they poured in four more runs as Pruitt collected his second RBI of the game on a groundout before Suponchick brought home his second run with another single that led to a big blast off the bat of Taylor Wright, launching a two-run homer to right field for his 4th home run of the season and second in as many games to give the Falcons an 8-1 lead.
The Black Bears started their comeback efforts as they scored a run in the 3rd inning and came alive for four runs in the top half of the 4th inning, spurred by a two-run single from Austin Bell that got Cowlitz within two runs before a Matt Land RBI walk with the bases loaded to give Kelowna a 9-4 lead after four innings of play.
Three more runs came in for Kelowna in the 5th inning as the offence keep rolling with back-to-back double from Trent Tinglestad and Pruitt to get Kelowna in double digits. Wright brought home Pruitt on a sacrifice fly for his third RBI of the night before Lucas Soper scored on a wild pitch to give Kelowna a 12-6 lead after five innings of play.
“The hitting on this team is very contagious and it’s fun to be a part of when everyone is going and getting on base,” said Pruitt of the big offensive night, “It makes you want to get in on it and not be the odd one out.”
The Black Bears added a pair of runs in the 6th inning before Matt Voelzke capped the scoring off with a two-run pinch-hit single in the 7th frame that gave Kelowna their season-high 13th and 14th runs of the night before Isaac Olson came into the game and pitched the final two innings for Kelowna that led to a 14-8 victory over Cowlitz.
“It was fun to watch our offence work the way they did and pick up runs in every way possible,” commented Donohue, “The guys are locked in and know what to do in those situations and with runners on and didn’t try to do too much but executed tonight.”
Stone Churby started for Kelowna before being relieved by Kellan Richards, who pitched 2.1 innings and collected his first win of the season. Matt Gannon took the loss for Cowlitz as the starter.
The second game of the three-game series takes place on Tuesday as the Falcons (17-13) and Black Bears (13-17) do battle. First pitch is set for 6:35 PM with tickets available for purchase on the Falcons website and also at the door ahead of the opening pitch of the ballgame.
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