Wenatchee Opens Father's Day Weekend at Home: San Francisco Seals In Town

The Wenatchee AppleSox play three non-WCL games this weekend, starting Friday night at 7:05 p.m. vs. the San Francisco Seals. 

WENATCHEE APPLESOX vs San Francisco Seals (NON-LEAGUE)
Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium     |       7:05 p.m.
L- Justin Blatner (1-0) vs. TBA
GAME NOTES       |       APPLESOX STATS       |       LISTEN LIVE

The Wenatchee AppleSox (4-8, 2-4 North), fifth place in the division, continue a nine-game homestand, hosting the San Francisco Seals in a three-game non-league set...Wenatchee won its first series of the season, Sunday with a 3-0 shutout of the Corvallis Knights, and won another series, 2-1 over the Walla Walla Sweets, Tuesday-Thursday...the AppleSox are playing their 17th franchise season (12th in the WCL) and are led by second-year skipper, AJ Proszek (31-38) (.449), who is in his 4th season with the Sox...Proszek is assisted by Kyle Hunt and Colton Loomis, both in their first seasons.

LAST NIGHT -- APPLESOX 4, SWEETS 8
WENATCHEE – The Wenatchee AppleSox (4-8), fell 8-4 to the Walla Walla Sweets (6-6), in the series finale, Thursday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium...Wenatchee won the three-game series 2-1...AppleSox starter Luke Mattson (0-2) was hit hard in the second inning by the Sweets, walking three batters and giving up two hits for the Sweets first runs of the night...a wild pitch surrendered the first run, while an RBI single for Ryan Johnston plated the second on an RBI single...struggling with command, Mattson allowed an additional run in the fifth inning and left two runners aboard when he exited with two outs in the frame, after an RBI single for Nick Vigo...Casey Legumina entered in relief and the two runners scored on a 2-RBI single for Austin Kopacz...Walla Walla went on to add a run in each of the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings...Nick Nyquist, the Sweets leading hitter and a former AppleSox player came up with an RBI single in the sixth and a 2-RBI triple in the eighth off of Taylor Borchers, making his AppleSox debut...in the seventh, an RBI double led to another run for the Sweets...catcher Griffin Mazur had the third extra-base hit of the game for Walla Walla...Wenatchee tried to make a game of it in the late innings...with one out, Jeremy Ydens delivered a solo home run off of Walla Walla reliever Joe Heineman...he was working to back up six scoreless innings from Easton Lucas (2-0). ..four walks led to another Wenatchee run...Jordan Rathbone followed up with a 2-RBI single to cut the deficit to 8-4.  

TONIGHT'S NOTES
APPLESOX NON-LEAGUE GAMES
Friday’s contest with the San Francisco Seals is the first of six non-league contests for the Sox in 2016...Wenatchee will also host the Alaska Goldpanners July 29-31, famous for playing the ‘Midnight Sun Game’ in Fairbanks Alaska...Wenatchee went 3-1 in non-league matchups in 2015...the only loss coming to these very Seals in the second game of the year...Wenatchee holds a 107-40 mark all-time in non-league action, including games played when the team was a PIL franchise from 2000-2004. 

FRESHMAN POWER
With Jeremy Ydens’ home run to left field a night ago, Wenatchee has received its first three home runs of 2016 from true-freshman hitters...Michael Toglia and Haydan Hastings each went deep in Wednesday’s extra-inning win.

DEFENSE REELING
A lone black mark on a good report card over the last week for the Sox has been defensively...Wenatchee has committed at least one error in 10 of its first 12 games. 

BLATNER TRYING TO GET TEAM BACK ON TRACK
If you look back to last Saturday’s game with Corvallis, Justin Blatner was the man that got the Sox going for a four-game winning streak...he turned in Wenatchee’s first quality start of the season, following his first spring at Gonzaga...the sophomore is holding opposing hitters to a .238 average. 

LEFT-HANDERS GIVING OPPONENTS FITS
Wenatchee’s left-handed pitching has been a point of strength in 2016...opposing batters are batting just .218 off of lefties, as opposed to a .309 average against right-handed pitching. 

RATHBONE COMING ON
Jordan Rathbone has tallied a team-leading 6 hits over the last five games...has also driven in a team-leading 4 RBI over the same stretch...he has the second-highest batting average in the last five games of any player with more than two games played.

ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO SEALS
In their 30th season of summer baseball, the Seals home field is not in the city for which they are named...their diamond is in Alameda...,ore formerly the team was the San Francisco Bay Area Collegiate Baseball Club...now they are merging their brand with the Alameda Merchants...because of split-squad games, multiple doubleheaders and all of the travel, the Seals have 45 players on the roster...outside of the Golden State there are games in Washington, Nevada, Alaska and British Columbia...they are coming from Alameda to Wenatchee and returning right home according to their schedule...the team is a “pay to play” outfit, with each player paying for membership.