by: Frank LaSala
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. ~ In the first game on the auxiliary field, the Washington Blue Sox
defeated the Palm Springs Chill 5-3. Washington broke the 1-1 tie in
the fourth. Kyle Stahl drove in Hayato Amamoto and Minami Kurahata
with a double to give the Blue Sox a 3-1 lead. Two batters later,
Ikegami Katsuyuki drove in Stahl to run the lead to 4-1. Jimmy
Lunardelli hit a two-run triple in the fifth to cut the deficit to
one. Taichi Nakamura rounded out the scoring in the sixth with an RBI
single to run Washington’s lead to 5-3. Stahl finished 1-for-2 with a
double, a walk, and two RBI’s for the Blue Sox. Lunardelli had a pair
of hits and a pair of RBI’s for the Chill in the loss. Shinya Toyama
earned the win, Kyle Grant suffered the loss, and Gen Utamura earned
the save.
In game one at Palm Springs Stadium, the Oregon Lumberjacks shut down
the Canada A’s 7-0. Oregon got their first run on a Reinaldo Gonzalez
RBI single after a two-out error extended the bottom of the first. In
the fourth, Oregon pushed three more accross. With two runners in
scoring position, Trevor Westmoreland hit a grounder to short that
Joseph Becht threw away, leading to two more Lumberjack runs.
Westmoreland scored on a Jordan Lambert sacrifice fly to make it 4-0.
In the fifth, Westmoreland beat out a grounder for an infield single
to drive in another run, and in the sixth, Rodriguez drove in two more
to round out the scoring. Rodriguez finished 1-for-3 with a walk, two
steals, two runs, and two RBI’s. The Lumberjacks took a combined
no-hitter into the seventh before Tyler Pfeffer broke up the bid with
a single. Jordan Brown earned the win and Andrew Chin suffered the
loss.
The Toronto Rush took down the Alberta Grizzly 3-0 in the second game
on the auxiliary field. The Rush got the scoring started immediately
in the top of the first. McClain Bradley reached on an error, moved to
second on a wild pitch, third on a past ball, then scored on a
sacrifice fly off the bat of Andris Rizquez. Toronto added another in
the third. Bradley reached on a catcher’s interference to start the
third, moved to second on a single, third on a walk, then scored on a
fielder’s choice. The Rush rounded out the scoring in the fifth.
Rizquez reached on a one-out walk and came into score on an RBI single
from Glenn Kubek to make it 3-0. Kubek finished 1-for-4 with two
RBI’s. Bradley finished 1-for-3 with two runs scored. William Myers
earned the win, Alex McCune took the loss, and Chris Amato picked up
the save.
The second game at Palm Spring Stadium also included a shutout but was
a closer affair. Despite an impressive 2-for-2 day from former KBO
professional first baseman Won Jie Choi, the Palm Springs Power fell
to the New York Colonials 1-0 after a hard fought pitchers duel. In
the second inning, the Colonials pushed across their only run off of
an RBI fielder’s choice from Dante Biagini scoring Armett Johnson who
had singled earlier in the inning. That run would turn out to be the
only one of the game for both teams giving Arnold the loss. Pitchers
took center stage as William Micah Witty-Oakland and Elliot Forde
teamed up to pitch a shutout giving up only a total of six hits to the
Power netting Witty-Oakland his first win of the season. For the
Power, pitchers Konner Arnold, Kyle Brown and Seth Burris combined to
only allow one run off just two hits through seven total innings of
work.
In the final game of the day, the Manitoba North Stars blew out the
British Columbia Bombers 11-2 on the auxiliary field. Already leading
3-0 in the bottom of the second, Trey Bridis hit a one-out grand slam
to blow the game open. In the third, Jacob Karlson hit a one-out solo
home run to extend the Manitoba lead to 8-0. The Bombers broke into
the run column in their half of the fourth. Jonah Dean-Hargroves
reached on an error to start the inning and scored on Parker
Sniatynski’s two-run home run a few pitches later. The North Stars
rounded out the scoring with three more in the bottom of the fifth.
Ryan Gowens earned the win with Joe Romence taking the loss.
Be sure to come back to Palm Springs Stadium on Friday for day two of CWL action!
