PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Due to the impending weather in Palm Springs, the California Winter League played an abbreviated schedule on Thursday. No games were played at Palm Springs Stadium, and all three games that took place were played on the auxiliary field.
The Toronto Rush used three pitchers to shut down the Palm Springs Chill and secure a 2-0 victory in game one on the auxiliary field. Starting pitcher John Kraft began the game strongly for the Rush, followed by Norman Coleman-Goodwin and Sam Steeves who combined to limit the Chill to just one hit while striking out three batters. The Toronto Rush did all of their damage in the second inning when Grady Caldwell got things going with a leadoff double. T.J. Ward drove home Caldwell two batters later to give the Rush a 1-0 lead, then Ward came around and scored on Tyler Cowles’ single to put the Rush ahead 2-0 and cap the scoring for the day. The Palm Springs Chill are now 6-5 on the season while the Rush improve to 8-3.
The New York Colonials and Canada A’s played to a 2-2 tie in the auxiliary fields second game. The Colonials struck first in the top of the third. With two-outs and runners on first and second, Armett Johnson reached on an infield single. Lance Montano, who was on second, scored on a throwing error to put New York up 1-0. With two-outs in the fourth, Dante Biagini lined a single into left to score Ryan Myers. Kamal Muhammad tried to score on the play, but he was thrown out at the plate. Joseph Becht led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run for the A’s to cut the score in half. Tyler Pfeffer followed that up with a triple and scored on Bodie Bryan’s sacrifice fly. The A’s got the winning run to second base, but Elliot Forde struck out the final two hitters to keep the score tied. Forde struck out nine batters over five innings for the Colonials.
The final game on the auxiliary field went between the Oregon Lumberjacks and the Washington Blue Sox, with the Blue Sox winning in the final inning 5-4. Oregon scored first in the second inning after a double into left-center field by Charles Sturtivant II, scoring Trevor Westmoreland and Shintaro Yokota. Lumberjacks pitcher Jonathon Howard sat down the first four batters he faced. Hayato Amamoto broke the streak with a single with one out in the second followed up by two more base hits to score the only Blue Sox run until the fifth. Winning pitcher Tatsunori Negishi came into the ballgame in the fifth and gave up two runs off a triple into center from Tanner Helms. Yasahiro Sasayama came in for the Lumberjacks with a chance to earn the save. He let the first three men reach base before Masumi Ohira scored the first run of the inning off a ground out to third. Amamato drove in two more runs to tie the game with a single to right field driving in Kyle Stahl and Kosuke Matsumoto. With the winning run on second, Kodai Kato singled into right scoring Yudai Nakamura from third giving the Blue Sox the win and Sasayama the loss.
Friday at the CWL is Canada Day. All Canadian residents with valid I.D. get into Palm Springs Stadium for $3. Game one at 10 AM features the Alberta Frizzly and Manitoba North Stars, followed by the Canada A’s and Palm Springs Power at 12:30 PM.
