AppleSox Welcome Bells to Wenatchee for Weekend Series
/
The Wenatchee AppleSox, fresh off taking two-of-three games in a home series against the Walla Walla Sweets, host the Bellingham Bells for three games this weekend at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.
The AppleSox defeated Walla Walla 5-0 on Tuesday and 3-1 last night to take their first West Coast League series of the season. In all three of their wins this summer the AppleSox have held their opponent to two or fewer runs and their WCL foes have combined to score three runs in those games. However, the AppleSox are seventh out of the 10 teams in the WCL in ERA (3.64) because they have allowed a combined 26 runs to score in games that they have lost.
While pitching has been hot and cold for the AppleSox, their bats have primarily been cold through six games. They have yet to score more than five runs in any of their first six games and hold a league-worst .159 batting average, which is 19 points below the next-closest team, Cowlitz. The saving grace for the offense is that the AppleSox have now homered in four consecutive games, with Adam Grob hitting two of those bombs.
Wenatchee (3-3) takes on a Bellingham (2-4) squad that plays on the road for the first time this season. The Bells lost two of three in their season-opening series against the Port Angeles Lefties before losing the final two games of their home set against the Yakima Valley Pippins. Josh Trujillo and Yugo Hamakawa have paced the Bells offensively. Trujillo is on a five-game hitting streak and has a .350 batting average overall. Hamakawa has hits in three straight games, including a three-hit night on Wednesday and on June 4, while batting .348 overall.
The AppleSox are 66-48 all-time against the Bells, including 50-37 in West Coast League play. The AppleSox swept the Bells in Wenatchee in 2019 and have won four-of-their-last-six games at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium against Bellingham. The Bells went 25-27 in 2019 including 9-16 in the second half of the season after finishing two games back of winning the first half North Division playoff berth.
Tonight’s starting pitcher for the AppleSox is Cole Hatton, an incoming sophomore at Saint Martin’s University. He has pitched in one game this season and it came last Saturday against Portland. He fired the final five innings in relief and earned the save by striking out four and shutting out the Pickles to seal up a 4-2 win.
Hatton posted a 7.31 ERA at Saint Martin’s as a freshman this past spring. He struck out 26, walked 22 and allowed 59 hits in 44.1 innings over 11 games. He was Pacific League MVP in his sophomore and junior years of high school at Ocosta High School in Washington.
Bellingham will counter with Oliver Laufman, who is 0-1 with a 3.37 ERA in one appearance this summer on June 6 against Portland. He allowed five runs in it, including a grand slam in the first inning, but only one run was earned. He is an incoming sophomore at Central Arkansas this fall. Laufman recorded a 3.16 ERA and struck out 39 K in 51.1 innings over eight games (all starts) this past spring at Edmonds CC. In 2020 he had a 2.29 ERA and struck out 18 in 19.2 innings over three games (two starts).
Fans can purchase tickets for tonight’s game and any other June AppleSox home game by visiting applesox.com/tickets.
If you cannot attend tonight’s game, then you can still listen live to the action on Sunny FM. Listeners can tune in at kcsyfm.com on their desktop computer or by tuning in at any of the following stations below.
Wenatchee: 93.9 FM
East Wenatchee/Rock Island: 98.1 FM
Lake Chelan Valley: 95.3 FM
Brewster/Pateros: 101.3 FM
Okanogan Valley: 101.9 FM
Omak/Tonasket/Oroville: 97.7 FM
Methow Valley: 106.3 FM
Pregame coverage begins at 6:10 p.m. with the Horan Estates Winery Pregame Show and the broadcast wraps up each night with the Denny’s Late Night Postgame Show. Tonight’s game will also have a live video without the radio feed. It can be seen on playsight.com
