Rough Eighth Inning Dooms AppleSox Wednesday

The Wenatchee AppleSox lost their first home game in almost a month as they fell to the Bellingham Bells, 7-5, on Wednesday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

Bellingham scored four times on three hits and three Wenatchee errors to force a rubber match between the two teams on Thursday night at 6:35. The AppleSox’ seven-game winning streak and 12-game home winning streak both came to an end on Wednesday as they fell at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium in league play for the first time since June 27.

Joey Pearson struck out two in 2.1 scoreless innings of relief midway through the game. He stranded inherited runners at first and second after entering in the fourth. Pearson hit the first batter of the fifth but retired the next three hitters, including the final two with strikeouts, before setting down the side in order in the sixth.

The AppleSox scored five times in the bottom of the fourth to overcome a 3-1 deficit. MJ Sweeney and Izzy Lopez drew back-to-back walks to open the inning before being sacrificed over. Mason Persons grounded out to third to scored Sweeney before Lopez scored from third on a balk. Wenatchee was just getting started as its next four batters all reached base with two outs. Trent Liolios doubled to left-center and Sebastian David drew a walk before Frankie Carney singled in Liolios and Carson Ohland doubled in David and Carney to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

Wenatchee (32-12, 12-4 second half) remains first place in the North Division in the second half while also still holding the best record in the West Coast League. Though the AppleSox lost, the Victoria HarbourCats and Kelowna Falcons also did to remain two games and three games back, respectively, with 10 games remaining in the regular season.