By Joe Traub

Port Angeles Lefties

PORT ANGELES — In Tuesday’s series opener at Civic Field, a pitcher’s duel ended up in the favor of the visiting Cowlitz Black Bears. The Port Angeles Lefties evened the score and the series Wednesday, as the combination of Joe Kinsky and A.C. Chavez limited Cowlitz to just three hits in a 4-3 victory.

Kinsky flirted with history, carrying a no-hitter into the seventh inning on a rainy night before it was broken up on a solo home run by Braden DeBenedictis with one out.

In his first start in a Lefties uniform, Kinsky gave up just the one hit in seven innings while walking four and striking out six.

West Coast League All-Star A.C. Chavez zipped through the eighth and then ran into a bit of trouble in the ninth. With one out, Chavez walked a batter and then hit another before getting a flyout. Luke Price and Seth Beckstead both singled to bring in runs before Chavez induced Colton Sakamoto to ground weakly to first, preserving the win.

Port Angeles did damage at the plate early in the contest, scoring twice in the first inning despite not hitting the ball out of the infield. Gavin Rork led off with an infield single and scored three batters later on C.J. Schauwecker’s own infield knock. With Ethan Groff on third base, Shauwecker was caught stealing second base but Groff raced home with the second run of the frame.

Damiano Palmegiani took care of the rest, blasting his fourth home run of the season in the second inning before his sacrifice fly made it 4-0 after six frames.

The Lefties faced the Black Bears late Thursday and will open a three-game set tonight at Civic Field against Kelowna.

Port Angeles 4, Cowlitz 3

COW 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 — 3 3 1

PA 2 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 X— 4 4 0

WP: Kinsky LP: Takalo SV: A.C. Chavez

Pitching

Cowlitz — Lauderdale 4IP, 3H, 3ER, BB, 5K; Stevens 1.1IP, H, ER, 3BB, 2K; Brady 1.2IP, 2BB, K; Takalo 1IP.

Port Angeles — Kinsky 7IP, H, ER, 4BB, 6K; Chavez 2IP, 2H, 2ER, BB, 3K.

Hitting

Cowlitz — DeBenedictis 1-3, HR, 2R, RBI; Price 1-2, 2BB, RBI.

Port Angeles — Rork 1-2, BB, R; Palmegiani 1-2, HR, R, 2RBI; Schauwecker 1-4, RBI; Christian 0-3,BB, R.