On July 6th, 2023, the Bellingham Bells swept the Kamloops NorthPaws in the first half of the West Coast League North. The Bellingham Bells have been working hard all season long to earn this spot and tonight they were victorious. Coming into the night the Bells needed to defeat the NorthPaws in the final game of their series and the Wenatchee AppleSox needed to lose tonight against the Port Angeles Lefties (which they did) in order for the Bells to take the top spot. Bellingham won the game 7-5 after a slow start. 

Starting on the mound was Will Armbruester who gained a high pitch count in the three innings he started. Armbruester threw 63 pitches and only 36 for strikes. Armbruester’s defense behind him had three errors in the field and allowed the only five runs from the NorthPaws. Luckily, Trevin Hope came in and brought us hope for the game, he led the Bells to defeat in to pitch in the fourth inning and lasted for three innings. Hope is from right here in Whatcom County and currently attends Lewis and Clark State College. In Hope’s 3 innings tonight he only allowed one hit and no runs came in. Hunter Long came in following Hope and threw two innings and had four strikeouts and had a 64% strikes rate. Closing the evening for the Bells and having the save, Gianluca Shinn threw the last inning and had one strikeout and the defense had the other two putouts. 

In tonight’s game, the Bells had a slow start at the plate, unable to score runs and had no hits through the third inning. But luckily they picked it up in the bottom of the fourth inning. The offense was started up by Andrew Valdez who hit a triple followed by Max Hartman with another triple scoring Valdez. Hartman was at third when Yohann Desserault came up to the plate and put the ball in play to score Hartman. After the Bells broke out of their early slump they continued to get on base whether it was through walks or hits. Ty Saunders and Coleman Schmidt both had doubles while Andrew Valdez, Max Hartman, and Yohann Desserault all had triples that accounted for five of the nine hits. Schmidt had four at bats tonight and two hits, batting .500. 

The Bells go into the weekend as the first half of the season North WCL champions. On the road journey the Bells will face the Ridgefield Raptors at 6:35 P.M. July 7th, 2023. Go Bells!