Halbach’s Heroics Not Enough On Friday

Matt Halbach hit a game-tying two-run RBI single in the bottom of the ninth but the Wenatchee AppleSox fell to the Corvallis Knights, 7-5, in 10 innings on Friday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

Halbach tied it up after back-to-back one-out walks and went to second on a throwing error but was stranded at second as the potential game-winning run. Corvallis scored twice with two outs in the 10th inning before retiring the AppleSox in order in the bottom of the 10th to win the weekend opener.

Ryan Mullan struck out four and only allowed two runs over six innings in his final start of the summer and left with the AppleSox in the lead, 3-2. He picked up his final strikeout with runners at second and third in the sixth after his defense turned a couple of brilliant defensive plays in the prior two innings. Third baseman Brandham Ponce caught a liner with runners at second and third and one out and then stepped on third base for the inning-ending unassisted double play in the sixth. Mullan recorded the second out of the fourth inning with a strikeout but with a runner at first the ball got away from catcher Ezra Samperi, who calmly picked up and tossed to second base to get the inning-ending forceout.

The AppleSox scored first with three runs in the first inning. Michael Davinni hit a sacrifice fly after Joichiro Oyama led off with a single and Matt Halbach reached on an error. Adam Fahsel reached on another error to put runners at first and second and Aiva Arquette laid down a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt first-base side to sacrifice himself but score Halbach. Fahsel came all the way around for second to score on a two-out infield single by Adam Fahsel to punctuate the big inning.

Corvallis scored a pair of runs in the third and then two more in the seventh after Mullan had exited the game. They scored one more for insurance in the eighth before the AppleSox tied it up. Five of the Knights’ seven runs scored with two outs.

Oyama extended his hitting streak to 12 games, matching Davinni for the longest hitting streak by an AppleSox hitter this summer. He also scored two runs to move six runs away from matching the AppleSox and the West Coast League’s single-season record of 47.

Halbach also extended his hitting streak to eight games with his 13th multi-hit game of the summer. He now has the third-best batting average in the WCL with a .360 mark.

Wenatchee honored former head coach and current Corvallis associate head coach Ed Knaggs before the game as founder Jim Corcoran, general manager Allie Schank and head coach Mitch Darlington presented him with his blue no. 11 AppleSox jersey. Knaggs led the AppleSox to six league championships and 12 playoff berths in 14 seasons with the team from 2001-14.

The AppleSox look to bounce back on Saturday at 6:35 p.m. as Riley Sinclair toes the rubber in the second game of the weekend series. Tickets can be purchased at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.