Quincy Vassar tossed six shutout innings and Evan Cloyd homered as the Wenatchee AppleSox defeated the Nanaimo NightOwls, 6-3, on Sunday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

Vassar (4-3) matched season-highs in strikeouts (six) and innings to record his third straight impressive start. He has tossed at least five innings in each of his last three starts and has only allowed one run over his last 17 innings.

Andrew Monson stranded the tying run in scoring position and fired a 1-2-3 ninth to lock up his second save of the summer.

Cloyd crushed his third home run of the summer after a one-out error in the bottom of the first to give Wenatchee (34-17, 16-8 second half) a 2-0 lead. The AppleSox never trailed or were tied from that point on.

Wenatchee added necessary insurance in the sixth on a RBI double from Jonathan Fitz to score Aidan Dougherty after his leadoff single. James Castagnola also scored from first on the ply as the throw to second to get Fitz was off target.

Nanaimo scored three times in the top of the seventh but Wenatchee got two of the runs back in the eighth when Jake Larson put down a successful safety squeeze bunt to plate Castagnola from third and Hunter Friedberg hit a two-out RBI double.

The AppleSox locked up home-field advantage for the North Division Championship Game if they reach it. Bellingham is the only team that can finish with the same overall record as Wenatchee but the AppleSox own the tiebreaker by having a .690 winning percentage in divisional play compared to the Bells’ .644 mark.

The postseason begins on Saturday when the AppleSox will travel to face whoever earns the fourth seed. Wenatchee will host Game 2 on Sunday at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium and Game 3, if necessary, Aug. 12. Tickets for Game 2 are available at AppleSox.com/schedule.