The Bellingham Bells opened up the 2024 season with a 5-4 walk-off win over the Edmonton Riverhawks on Friday, May 31 at Joe Martin Field.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Bellingham Bells left fielder Jason Shedlock hit a line drive up the middle to a diving Riverhawk shortstop, who snagged the ball with the tip of his glove. But as he fell to the ground, the ball bounced out of his glove and the stadium lit up. With nobody covering home, designated hitter Bryce Johnson was waved around third to score the winning run.
“It’s electric, that’s all I got to say about it,” Shedlock said of the moment after he made contact.
For Johnson, a Meridian graduate, the win was a little extra special.
“I’ve been looking forward to this my whole life, my goal was always to play for the Bells,” he said. “I finally got to do it and I got up in a big at-bat there.”
What appeared to be a game that would entail a pitchers’ duel of the top two arms in the West Coast League — Edmonton’s 2023 WCL Pitcher of the Year Halen Knoll started against Bellingham’s Ryan Beitel, who was right behind him in the WCL First Team starting rotation — turned into all but that.
Before the ninth inning, the Bells were struggling on offense while Edmonton seemed to be finding green in the most opportune moments.
Riverhawks outfielder Jonny McGill cracked open the scoring with an RBI single to the outfield in the second inning. Later in the inning, Edmonton loaded the bases with two outs, but Beitel staunched the bleeding with a strikeout.
Beitel and the Bells’ defense kept Edmonton in check through the fourth, after the ace was pulled out for the night. Beitel dealt seven strikeouts in four innings.
Bellingham pitcher Will Anderson came in as relief to start the fifth inning. Edmonton wasted no time finding the ball out of the hand of the sophomore from the University of British Columbia. After trading a couple of hits and outs, Riverhawks shortstop William Vausser found some grass with two outs for an RBI single. The next at-bat, Edmonton first baseman Trent Lenihan knocked a deep ball to the left field corner to bring two more runs across.
The Bells closed out the fourth inning down 4-0 and continued to struggle to get anything going at the plate.
Bells first baseman Jacob Mejia added a glimmer to an otherwise underwhelming offensive night thus far with a deep solo home run to right field.
The Bells came back again in the bottom of the seventh with a one-out single by second baseman Anthony Kodama, followed by a warning-track double by catcher Conner Smith. Designated hitter Bryce Johnson got his first RBI playing in front of his hometown crowd with a fielder’s choice to the shortstop to bring the Bells one run closer.
After the crowd sang along to “Sweet Caroline” in the middle of the eighth, the Bells came out swinging. Right fielder Jorge Mejia put the ball down the third-base line for a double and then stole third base, but unfortunately for the home team, the rest of those cuts resulted in three easy outs.
The Bells then held the Riverhawks to a donut in the top of the ninth and the winning stretch unfolded.
“What a great first game, that was great for everybody,” Bells first-year coach Bob Ralston said. “[I told the team] keep doing what you’re doing and something positive will happen for us — and it did.”
The Bells continue their series against the Riverhawks at 6:35 p.m. Saturday, June 1 at Joe Martin Field.
Finn Wendt is a CDN visual journalist; reach him at finnwendt@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 122.
