Wenatchee Looks to Extend Season-Best Winning Streak against Cowlitz
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Tonight at 6:35 in Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium, Wenatchee will play round two against the Cowlitz Black Bears hoping to capture the series. To say the ‘Sox are hot would be an understatement.
The AppleSox overcame early struggles once again to pound the Cowlitz Black Bears 19-9 last night. Wenatchee fell behind 5-1 due to a performance that saw Wenatchee commit a season-high seven errors in a WCL contest. But, the Sox never failed to get runners on base. After leaving nine men on base through four frames, Wenatchee exploded. The Sox got 12 runs in the fifth with only two hits in the frame. Both just happened to leave the yard.
Michael O'Hara's grand slam was the first big fly and then Adam Grob hit his fifth home run overall and fourth in league play. Even with nine runs off the Sox, the deficit was too much to overcome for Cowlitz. Along with O'Hara and Grob, shortstop Garrett Cutting collected his third straight two-hit start. One of those hits happened to be Cutting's third triple in as many games. Every Sox starter got on base at least once against the Black Bears in last night's series opener. The Sox drew 15 walks and eight hit-by-pitches in the batter's box.
This win moved the AppleSox within two games of Bellingham in the second half standings for second place. Overall, Wenatchee is three games behind Bellingham as the Bells host Highline for a non-league weekend set. This four-game winning streak is incredible just because the Sox have trailed in all four games by at least three runs before storming back.
Diving into the numbers, Wenatchee is seventh in batting average with a .232 mark. Don't be fooled though. The Sox are hitting .299 in their last four games with an average of nearly 13 runs per game. The big difference has played into the team’s biggest strength this summer. Wenatchee has earned 38 walks and struck out just 26 times in the past week over 127 at-bats. In the four games against Cowlitz's top-three pitching staff (3.66 ERA - third in WCL), the Sox have scored five or more runs in three out of four games.
Standing tall for the AppleSox today is starter Skylar Hales. The incoming sophomore out of Santa Clara has been dazzling this summer. Entering his first start, Hales leads the team with a 1.42 earned run average over seven appearances. Hales, who is second in team strikeouts (33), delivered the most dominant pitching performance of the summer his last outing in Wenatchee. The Reno, Nevada native struck out ten Pippins over four-and-a-third innings pitched without giving up a run back on July 24th.
Cowlitz has not announced their starter for tonight’s game.
Tickets are available for tonight’s game as well as the final home game tomorrow and can be purchased on your computer at applesox.com/tickets or at the ballpark. Gates open at 5:30 tonight.
If you cannot make it over to Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium tonight, the AppleSox will provide a live video broadcast with a synced-up radio feed. It can be seen on playsight.com. Joel Norman and Reily Chestnut will provide play-by-play coverage.
Listen live to the action on Sunny FM at kcsyfm.com on your 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 with the Denny’s Late Night Postgame Show.
Live stats can be found on Pointstreak.
