AppleSox Win Third Consecutive Series

Aiva Arquette and Cole Miller both collected three-hit efforts while Luc Stuka and Andrew Haight both extended their hitting streaks to seven games as the AppleSox picked up a 13-0 win over the Kelowna Falcons on Thursday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

The win marked Wenatchee’s second shutout victory of the season and their third consecutive series victory. The AppleSox have have taken two-of-three games from the Victoria HarbourCats, Edmonton Riverhawks and Kelowna Falcons in the last week-and-a-half to give them wins in six-of-their-last-nine games.

Evan Canfield (2-0) tossed 2.2 scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win in his first home appearance of the summer. He struck out four consecutive hitters for four-of-his-last-five outs. Ryan Mullan started and did not allow any runs in 4.1 innings while stranding seven men in the first three innings. Connor Wilson tossed a scoreless ninth inning.

The AppleSox collected a season-high 17 hits on Thursday night and never trailed after a three-run second inning in which Matt Halbach drove in two with a bases-loaded single before Arquette plated his first run of the night with a single.

All of the runs in the first inning scored with two outs and was only kept possible by two crucial at-bats. Joichiro Oyama preceded Halbach with a walk to load up the bases after Grant Sherrod picked up a two-out single to prolong the inning. Sherrod reached base four times Thursday and scored all four times, including hitting a solo home run to lead off the fourth inning. Xander Orejudos plated the AppleSox’ other run in the fourth with a two-out RBI single for his first of two hits.

The AppleSox scored in each of their final three innings at the plate. They got singular runs in the sixth and seventh innings thanks to a Kelowna error each inning before scoring six times in the eighth. Miller, Oyama and Arquette all delivered RBI singles in the frame as 10 hitters came to the plate.

Wenatchee faces a tough test this weekend as the Bend Elks come to Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium to wrap up the season series. The AppleSox were swept to open the season June 3-5 at Vince Genna Stadium but twice blew saves in the series. The Elks sit one game back of the Corvallis Knights for first place in the South Division and, like the AppleSox, wrap up the first half of the season this weekend. Purchase tickets at saferseating.com.

Listen to the latest edition of the AppleSox Podcast below to hear a recap of the game, highlights and postgame interview with Sherrod and Canfield as well as the pregame interview with Ezra Samperi. Subscribe to the AppleSox Podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to check out previous episodes.