Jake Cumming made his third appearance for the Lefties this season, tossing 4.1 innings (Photo courtesy of Maevis Photography)
Lefties fall to Raptors for third straight time
By: Thomas Johnson
Tried as they might, the Port Angeles Lefties could not tame the Ridgefield Raptors Thursday night at Civic Field, falling 11-7. The Lefties suffered its second straight series sweep in a row.
Already up 2-0 in the fifth inning, Ridgefield’s Richard Tejeda (USC) slugged a grand slam over the left-field wall to put his side up by six. It seemed to be a catchable ball as Jeremy Giesegh (Cal State, San Bernardino) braced himself against the outfield wall, but it popped out of Giesegh’s glove and went over the wall to give Tejeda the slam.
Down by the six-run deficit, Port Angeles was able to scrape three runs across in the home half of the fifth to cut Ridgefield’s lead in half, as Jack Kleveno (Univ. of Utah), Julio Vasquez Jr. (Henderson State) and Ethan Kodama (UC Berkeley) all came around to score.
But the Raptors continued to distance themselves, scoring twice in the sixth and eighth innings, then adding another in the ninth to make it a near-impossible eight-run deficit for the Lefties to come back from.
Giesegh — the second-to-last batter of the game — did what he could as part of a three-hit day, putting up a three-run jack in the bottom of the ninth to make the final score more serviceable and give his squad some momentum heading into its upcoming series.
Jake Cumming (Univ. of Nevada, Reno) started the game for Port Angeles and was tagged with the loss, tossing 4.1 innings — a season high — and giving up four earned runs off of four hits and six walks. This is only Cumming’s third appearance of the season as he is working to stretch himself as a starter.
The night after leaving 13 runners on the basepaths — which was tied for a season high — Port Angeles hitters did a better job of hitting with runners in scoring position, only stranding four runners on the night.
Despite the loss, the Lefties were looking to be better in that aspect of the game.
“We’re just looking for that timely hit,” Vasquez Jr. said in an interview with the Lefties broadcasters prior to the game. “We’re just looking for that one hit that’ll drive in those few runs that’ll we need to put ourselves on top and keep ourselves in the game. I think we’re close to it.”
Port Angeles — currently on a seven-game losing streak — had not eclipsed three runs in any of the games in that span prior to the series-closing matchup with the Raptors. Despite the loss, the Lefties might be able to hang their hats on the momentum-building slug from Giesegh.
The Lefties returned to Civic Field to face the Kelowna Falcons past press deadline Friday night, but will continue playing the Falcons for two more matchups as part of a seven-game homestand that will conclude on Monday.
