PORT ANGELES — It came down to the last pitch of the game, but the Port Angeles Lefties escaped a ninth-inning jam to beat the Redmond Dudes 5-4 in a non-league matchup Tuesday night at Civic Field.
Capital University reliever Drew Pfundt came on for Port Angeles during the ninth inning with two outs, but two runners on and a thin, one-run lead. The Dudes had already plated two runs in the frame to cut the lead, looking to tie it up. In search for his first save in a Lefties uniform, Pfundt blew it past Sam Braunel (Whitman College) to close out the win for the Lefties.
But it was the heroics of Spencer Dickinson (Oklahoma Baptist) that gave the Lefties a lead in the first place.
With the game tied at two apiece, the ballplayer out of Saipan in the Pacific’s Northern Mariana Islands came up to the plate with two runners on and no outs. Dickinson connected when Port Angeles needed him most, putting the ball over the left-field wall to give the Lefties a lead for good.
“Just tried to be simple and get a runner in and thankfully it went my way and went over the fence,” Dickinson said after the game.
Dickinson now has jacks in back-to-back games, slugging one off of Kelowna in the series finale on Sunday. The third baseman now has three shots on the year, good for second most on the team.
“It’s feeling good, I didn’t really have a good start coming out here,” Dickinson said. “So, [I’m] starting to feel in the groove, so I’m excited … Just trying to be me, keep it simple, just have fun and everything will go your way.”
In addition to the late-game theatrics, the Lefties pitching staff tossed a good performance. Embry-Riddle’s Alec Hagopian got the start on the bump for the Lefties, notching his second start in a Port Angeles uniform.
Mount Hood Community College’s Takuma Sato earned the win after throwing 1 2/3 innings, notching two strikeouts before handing the ball to Pfundt to close it out.
The Lefties started the scoring in the sixth inning when Yahir Ramirez (Texas A&M Corpus Christi) and Ethan Kodama (Cal-Berkeley) hit back-to-back singles to start the inning, later coming around to score two runs. Port Angeles improved its record to 6-7 when it scores first, accounting for all but two of the Lefties’ wins.
Ramirez and Kodama each tallied a trio of knocks, with the duo also scoring on Dickinson’s bomb.
The Dudes tied it up in the seventh inning off a four-hit frame, but stranded the bases loaded to keep it knotted at 2-2, allowing Dickinson to put his side ahead with his big blast.
Port Angeles visits Victoria for a series against the HarbourCats through Friday.
