The Bells are the North West Coast League champions, while the Ridgefield Raptors are the South WCL champions, and these two teams faced it off tonight at 6:35 P.M. on the Raptors home field in Ridgefield, Washington. Unfortunately, the Bells fell just short to the Raptors in 11 innings, losing 5-4. 

The Bellingham Bells were neck and neck with the Raptors at the end of the 9th inning. In the top of the ninth inning the Bells were able to score two runs to put them ahead of the Raptors, but Ridgefield answered right back with two runs in the bottom of the ninth. Ryan Beitel started strong for Bellingham, throwing five complete innings allowing only two runs and four hits in the 20 batters he faced during his outing. Beitel threw 65 pitches and was able to have 37 for strikes. Following Beitel, Ryan Orr and Carter Parcher came in and threw 3 innings collectivly and had four strikeouts. But it wasn’t enough. 

In the box for the Bells leading off was Andrew Valdez who led the team in first half of the season for batting average, with a .337. Valdez has been a key player this year by helping the Bells get base runners, whether he is hitting home runs or taking the free base, he is most likely on the basepath at some point during the game. Daryl Ruiz had a double, single, walk, and hit by pitch and got on four different times. Ruiz however, was unsuccessful to score. Anthony Kodama batted eighth in the line up and had two walks and crossed home two times. Kodama is second for the team in batting average, with a .320. Dean West and Max Hartman procduced the other two hits for the Bells tonight. Sadly though, the Bells four hits weren’t enough to take the win over the Raptors 11 hits.

The Bells look to bounce back tomorrow and take game two down south. First pitch is at 6:35 P.M. Go Bells!