Dougherty Wins Batting Crown, AppleSox Top Elks

Aidan Dougherty became the third player in team history to record the top batting average in the West Coast League as the Wenatchee AppleSox defeated the Bend Elks, 10-4, on Thursday night at Vince Genna Stadium.

Wenatchee (35-19, 17-10 second half) led 8-0 before the bottom of the third and chased Bend starter Parker Grant before an out was recorded in the second. The AppleSox finished the season first in the WCL in runs (380) and batting average (.283).

Dougherty drew two walks and hit a sacrifice fly before singling in the fifth in his final plate appearance of the summer. The incoming junior at UConn extended his hitting streak to 10 games and joined Payden Cawley-Lamb (.350 in 2011) and Curtis Van Wyck (.352 in 2007) as the only AppleSox to ever win a WCL batting crown. Dougherty finished the season with a .380 average and also led the league with five triples. His 43 RBI tied for third-most and his 21 steals were the third-most in a single season in AppleSox history. The Snohomish native also matched Connor Spencer (2013) for the best batting average in a single season in team history among players to appear in at least 40 games.

Karsten Sweum tossed four scoreless innings in his third start of the summer. Aaron Platner (1-0) blanked the Elks in the fifth and sixth to earn the win in his AppleSox debut.

Max Hartman scored three times to tie Portland’s Tanner Griffith for the WCL lead with 51 runs. This is the third straight season that an AppleSox player has tied or led the league in runs after Frankie Carney scored 44 runs last season and Joichiro Oyama set a WCL record with 64 runs in 2022. Hartman reached base five times in six plate appearances Thursday night and .583 as the leadoff hitter all three games against Bend.

James Castagnola doubled in a pair of runs in the first and then hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth to plate three runs. Cooper Whitton recorded multi-RBI day for a second straight night with an RBI single in the third and a sacrifice fly in the ninth. Jake Larson hit a two-out RBI single in the first inning for a second straight game and then replicated the feat in the second inning.

Kanoa Morisaki reached safely three times with two hits and a walk before shifting over to the mound from shortstop to get the final four outs.

Wenatchee locked up the best records in the North Division in the first half and second half for the first time since the two-half playoff format was adopted in 2016. The AppleSox will face the Victoria HarbourCats this weekend in the North Division Series. Game 2 is Sunday night at 6:35 at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium and tickets are available at AppleSox.com/schedule.