APPLESOX MEET GRESHAM FOR FIRST TIME

Justin Blatner will be on the hill for the Wenatchee AppleSox to start the second half of a six-game road trip at Gresham. 

WENATCHEE APPLESOX at Gresham GreyWolves
Oslund Field     |       7:05 p.m.
L- Justin Blatner (1-0) vs. L- Chris Brown (0-1)
GAME NOTES       |       APPLESOX STATS       |       LISTEN LIVE

The Wenatchee AppleSox (6-9, 2-4 North), fifth place in the Gresham GreyWolves (6-10, 4-6 South)...Wenatchee is meeting the GreyWolves for the first time in franchise history, Friday...the club is 10-3 in its inaugural meetings with WCL opponents...the AppleSox are playing their 17th franchise season (12th in the WCL) and are led by second-year skipper, AJ Proszek (35-39) (.473), 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 1, ELKS 9
BEND – The Wenatchee AppleSox (6-9), came up short in their try for a first sweep over the Bend Elks (7-11), Thursday night in a 9-1 final at Vince Genna Stadium in Bend, Ore...after coming up with 31 hits in the first two games of the series, the AppleSox offense was slowed by Andrew Edwards (1-1), and the Elks...Wenatchee came up with just two hits in the game...Bend opened the scoring with an RBI single for Tommy Lane in the first inning...Wenatchee answered in the third inning after a double for Matt Fraizer...with two outs, Fraizer stole third base and came home to score on a throwing error by the Elk’s catcher...in the fourth inning, Bend took back the lead for good. The Elks brought around five runs in the inning, while knocking Luke Mattson (0-3) out of the game...Lane got his second and third RBI on a double, and Jake Anderson chipped in an RBI single in the frame...the Elks tacked on three more runs in the seventh inning off of Sox reliever Eli Thornquist, who worked after Casey Legumina...the runs were the first allowed this season by Thornquist and came on RBI singles for Anderson and Jarod Gonzales...a throwing error from center field brought home the third run...Wenatchee committed three errors in the game...Tyler Burch pitched the eighth inning for Wenatchee and retired the side with a strikeout...Wenatchee struck out in order in the ninth, and Bend’s pitching staff tallied 14 strikeouts in the win...Edwards tossed nine, Grant Larson threw two, and Sam Boone got the final three.  

TONIGHT'S NOTES
BIG HITS
Over the last three-game set, Wenatchee hammered out 33 hits...a new single-series high for 2016. 

FIGURING OUT LEFTIES
The AppleSox have struggled facing left-handed starting pitching this season...after last night, the Sox are 1-4 against left-handed starters, and are scheduled to face two more left handers on the weekend. 

STILL THE VISITOR
Wenatchee is the road team for three more games on this southerly swing...the AppleSox are amidst a six-game road trip, the first of two six-game stretches away from Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium this summer...the second will be July 23-28 at Bellingham and Kelowna...Wenatchee is 2-4 on the road this season. 

ERRORS COSTLY
With errors committed in 12-of-15 games this season, the AppleSox are looking to get a handle on things defensively...last night the team committed more errors (3) than it got hits (2). 

BLATNER ON THE BUMP
Back on June 11, Justin Blatner delivered the first win of the season for the AppleSox...the lefty recorded the Sox first quality start, giving up just one run and five hits over six innings of work...the Sox have thrown two quality starts since.

THIS WEEKEND’S STARTERS
The three upcoming starters for the AppleSox have a combined 3-1 record over 34.2 innings...the trio has only allowed a total of 5 earned runs in the three wins...they have thrown 35 strikeouts and walked only 10 batters.