The Bellingham Bells defeated the Kelowna Falcons 5-3 at home on Wednesday, Aug. 9, completing a first-round sweep in the West Coast League playoffs and securing a spot in the North Division Championship game against the Victoria HarbourCats.
The Bells defeated the Falcons 1-0 in Game One of the divisional series on Tuesday, Aug. 8, in Kelowna, British Columbia, and will now face the HarbourCats at 6:35 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 12, in Victoria, British Columbia.
The Bells split the season series with Victoria, 3-3, and the HarbourCats will be seeking revenge as Bellingham swept them in the first round of the 2022 playoffs.
Wednesday’s victory began just like the opening game of the series where pitching and defense won early. Neither team recorded a hit until the top of the fourth when Kelowna shortstop Luke Solis hit a double to get things going. Catcher Konnor Palmeira’s single brought Solis home to put the Falcons up 1-0 in the top of the fourth inning.
Bells second baseman Cole Yoshida answered, smashing a two-run triple to left field in the bottom of the fourth to help the Bells capture the lead.
Right-handed pitcher Everett Swaim pitched the first 4 1/3 innings, striking out three batters before being replaced by lefty Sheldon Egger with runners on second and third.
The Falcons quickly regained the lead in the fifth after scoring twice, once by stealing home.
The Bells again responded by loading the bases to start the bottom of the fifth, before Coleman Schmidt’s sacrifice fly allowed Nate Kirkpatrick to score, tying the game at 3-3.
Bellingham retook the lead when Daryl Ruiz hit a solo home run in the sixth, which would end up being the game-winning run.
“I was just trying to slow my heart rate down because it was going pretty fast,” Ruiz said. “But then when I got to two strikes, I knew I just had to put the ball in play and hopefully something good would happen. Something did.”
Schmidt followed that up in the seventh with a homer himself, putting the Bells up by two at 5-3, a lead that the Bells held on to for the remainder of the game.
Right-handed pitcher Marques Brown replaced Egger to start the seventh and righty Will Franklin closed the game for the Bells in the final inning.
“You never know what a baseball game’s going to bring,” Bells head coach Jim Clem said. “Some days it’s the offense, some days it’s the defense. Today, we got a little bit of both. Real proud of the guys; how they just keep playing. Every day they come to the yard, and they play hard all the time.”
Seven of Bellingham’s nine batters finished the game with either a hit or a run.
Bellingham will look to clinch consecutive WCL championship appearances by winning the single-game divisional championship in Victoria Saturday, Aug. 12. The HarbourCats swept the Wenatchee AppleSox to face Bellingham.
