The Lefties hit a home run for the second straight day, but couldn’t take the series opener against Kelowna. (Photo courtesy of Maevis Photography)
Lefties drop eighth straight game, fall to Kelowna
By: Thomas Johnson
The Port Angeles Lefties cannot seem to catch a break, falling to the Kelowna Falcons 6-3 at Civic Field on Friday night. It was the home side’s eighth straight loss overall and its seventh straight loss to its neighbor to the north.
It was a raucous start to the game, as Kelowna’s travel delays caused the start of the game to be pushed back by over 15 minutes. The late start seemed to affect the bats of both teams, with each squad going scoreless through four innings.
A large part of that was Port Angeleno John Vaara’s (Edmonds College) season-long pitching performance. The 6-foot-9 right-hander tossed five innings, only giving up one earned run off of five hits, three walks and two strikeouts.
Kelowna’s lone run off of the Port Angeles high school alum came in the fifth inning, when Jacob Devenny (Rice University) knocked in Nate Gray Jr. (Lower Columbia College) with an RBI single to get the scoring started.
The Lefties would snatch the momentum right back as Ethan Kodoma (UC Berkeley) slugged a three-run homer over the right-field wall to give Port Angeles a 3-1 lead. Kodoma also hit a seventh-inning single and now has multiple hits in two straight games, notching three in the series finale against the Ridgefield Raptors.
“It felt good, been working in the cage about some stuff, just sticking to my routine and saw a pitch I can drive,” Kodoma said postgame. “Just got on top of it and did damage to it, so it felt really good.”
But it was all Kelowna from that point on. Cameron Sewell (Sacramento State) matched Kodoma, hitting a two-run shot of his own nearly in the same spot as Kodoma’s.
With the game tied, the Lefties could only muster two hits and three total baserunners the rest of the way.
The Falcons went on to score two of their final three runs off of wild pitches, as Kelowna only recorded three RBIs on its six total runs. Nate Gray Jr. (Lower Columbia College) scored two runs off of his two hits, improving his batting average to .392.
“It’s something that’s kind of happened throughout the summer,” pitching coach Tanner Knapp said postgame. “We kind of shoot ourself in our own foot. So we just gotta be able to come out and compete and just have a ton of confidence that we can throw stuff in the zone and not try to overdo it … We just gotta go challenge hitters.”
Gray Jr.’s performance still wasn’t enough to match Jeremy Giesegh’s (Cal State, San Bernardino), who had two knocks of his own to raise his average to .400. Giesegh and Gray Jr. entered the night second and third, respectively, in the West Coast League batting title race.
The Lefties will look to snap their eight-game losing streak tomorrow, facing the Falcons again for a 6:35 matchup.
