BELLINGHAM — The Port Angeles Lefties ran into a buzzsaw of pitching Sunday as seven Bellingham pitchers held the Lefties to just two hits in a 7-0 loss.
With the loss, the Lefties are off to a 1-2 start in the second half of the West Coast League. They lost 8-6 on Saturday and won the second-half opener 3-2 Friday in extra innings.
In Sunday’s loss, Tommy Markey (Fordham) and Sam Matosich (Centralia) were the only players who managed hits against the Bells. Bellingham hurlers did walk nine batters, but the Lefties couldn’t take advantage.
The Lefties pitched well, allowing just seven hits and five earned runs, but got no run support.
Port Angeles (16-17 overall, 12-18 in WCL games) returns home to play at 6:35 p.m. today against their cross-strait rival Victoria. Wednesday night is Cal Ripken Baseball opening ceremonies night at Civic Field.
Bellingham 7, Port Angeles 0
PA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 2 1
B’Ham 1 0 2 0 0 1 2 1 x — 7 7 0
WP: Gillespie; LP: Johnson.
Pitching
PA — Johnson 3 IP, 2 H, ER; Seay 2.1 IP, 2 H, ER, 2 BB; Stuart 1.2 IP, H, 2 ER, 3 BB, K; Patterson IP, 2 H, ER.
Hitting
PA — Matosich 1-1, Markey 1-4, SB.
Saturday’s Game
Down 7-0 in the sixth inning, the Port Angeles Lefties erupted with a six-run inning, but it wasn’t enough to catch the Bells in an 8-6 loss Saturday night.
After the Lefties’ big inning, Bells’ relief pitcher Mack Edwards clamped down with two perfect innings in the eight and ninth, not allowing a Port Angeles baserunner.
The Lefties blew up the sixth inning and right back in the game with five hits, including a three-run home run by Danny Porras.
Porras (Gig Harbor) opened the scoring with his three-run bomb. After a walk and then a single by Eric Valdivia (Chaffey College), Jett Nelson (University of Jamestown) had a two-run single. Nelson came in to score on a single by Markey.
Porras finished 2-for-5, while Nelson finished the game 2-for-3.
Ryan Rodriguez (Centralia) started and took the loss, though he only gave up one earned run in two innings. Francisco Lopez (Ottawa Univ.) and Kayne Jinks (Tennessee Tech) pitched well in relief as the Lefties rallied to get back in the game, going a combined three innings and allowing one run and two hits.
Bellingham 8, Port Angeles 6
PA 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 — 6 11 3
B’Ham 1 3 2 0 1 0 0 1 x — 8 9 0
WP: Van Dyke; LP: Rodriguez.
Hitting
PA — Edmunds 2-4, R; Porras 2-5, HR, R, 3 RBI; Nelson 2-3, R, 2 RBI; Markey 1-4, RBI.
Pitching
PA — Rodriguez 2 IP, 3 H, ER, 3 H, BB, 2 K; Hoffstetter 3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB; Lopez 1.2 IP, H, 2 BB, K; Jinks 1.1 IP, H, ER, 3 BB.
Friday’s Game
The Port Angeles Lefties got a clutch go-ahead hit in the 10th inning from Will White and got the tying run out at home plate in the bottom of the inning to preserve a 3-2 Fourth of July victory over the Bellingham Bells.
The victory got the Lefties off to a 1-0 start in the second half of the West Coast League season. The Lefties finished the first half 11-16 on Thursday, ending the early part of the WCL season by winning six out of their last eight league games.
The Lefties went into the ninth inning up 2-1 in Friday’s game, but the Bells scored a tying run in the bottom of the ninth. It could have been much worse as Bellingham had the bases loaded with no outs.
Josh Verkuilen (Cal State, San Bernardino) pitched two high-stress innings in the ninth for a well-earned victory.
Verkuilen, who inherited two of the runners, got a shallow fly ball for one out, and then a fielder’s choice grounder for a second out. A run came in to score on that fielder’s choice, however, to tie the game at 2-2. Verkuilen ended the inning with a clutch strikeout.
In the top of the 10th, Tommy Markey (Fordham) got on base on an error and moved to third on a groundout. He was brought in by White’s (Cal State, Bakersfield) single to right field.
In the bottom of the 10th inning, the Bells led off with a triple by Camden Gillespie, putting the tying run just 90 feet away from home with no outs. Verkuilen, again in a high-pressure situation, got a shallow fly ball for the first out. Then on a grounder to third basemen Tyler Shulman (Harvard), he threw the ball home to catcher Dom Dominguez (Cal State, San Bernardino), who got the runner out at home.
Verkuilen ended the game with the next batter on a grounder.
Garrett Holpuch (Tennessee Tech) started the game and again was solid, going six innings, allowing four hits, three walks and no earned runs. He struck out five. Over his past three games, Holpuch is 2-0 and has allowed four earned runs in 22 innings (1.64 ERA).
White finished 2-for-5 with two RBIs, while Garrett Cooper (Lower Columbia) was 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored and an RBI.
Port Angeles 3, Bellingham 2, 10 innings
PA 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 — 3 9 1
Bell. 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 2 6 1
WP: Verkuilen. LP: Biddiner.
Pitching
PA — Holpuch 6 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 5 K; Sato 1.1 IP, H, 2 BB, 3 K; Wrightstone 0.2 IP; Cumming ER, 2 BB; Verkuilen 2 IP, H, BB, K.
Hitting
PA —White 2-5, 2 RBI; Cooper 2-3, 2B, R, RBI.
