Timely Hits Missing in Wenatchee Loss to Kelowna

Joel Norman

Wenatchee AppleSox Media

The Wenatchee AppleSox stranded a season-high 14 men on the bases and dropped the first game of a three-game set against the Kelowna Falcons, 6-5, on Friday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

Easton Amundson extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a triple in the seventh inning and Brandham Ponce followed with an RBI single for his eighth consecutive game with a hit. Jack DeDonato tossed three scoreless innings out of the bullpen and struck out five.

The AppleSox had a chance to win the game in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and no one out but only scored one run and left the tying run at third and the go-ahead run at second. Wenatchee (9-4) stranded two men on the bases in six different innings to suffer its first set of consecutive losses this summer.

Amundson opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the first inning and a balk scored another run to give the AppleSox a two-run cushion. The Falcons got a run back in the third and a two-run homer gave them the lead in the fourth. Gores recovered by retiring the next six hitters in order, including the final five via strikeouts, to finish five complete innings. Each of the first four hitters of the sixth recorded hits and three scored to give Kelowna a 6-2 lead.

Amundson and Ponce went to work to plate the first run in the seventh and then Reeve Boyd delivered a two-out RBI single up the middle for his 6th RBI in the last three games to make it a two-run game. Wenatchee’s only run of the ninth came when Marty Kaplan hit a ball just over the mound that allowed Izzy Lopez to come home on the putout. The AppleSox had opened up the inning by reaching on an error and two hit by pitches but each of their next three hitters were retired to end the game.