The Bellingham Bells beat the Wenatchee AppleSox 1-0 on Saturday, June 29, at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham, Wash. This means that the AppleSox and Bells are tied at 17-9 and are tied for first place in the North Division. Tomorrow’s afternoon rubber game will likely determine the North Division winner in the first half of the WCL season with the Bells needing a win to clinch an early playoff berth.

The AppleSox almost took an early lead in the second inning when Evan Cloyd led off with a double. A Luca Boscarino single to right field gave Cloyd the green light to head home. The issue was, Logan Degroot’s throw from right field was perfectly thrown to Jacob Mejia who relayed home and Conner Smith applied a tag to get Cloyd out on a play at the plate to save a run.

Despite offense being hard to come by, the Bells strung together some timely hitting to take the 1-0 lead in the eighth inning. Kaikea Harrison had the first hit and was sent to third base on Trent Mallonee’s second hit of the night. Jason Shedlock hit a soft grounder that scored Harrison from third. Two of the Bells three hits came in that eighth inning.

“Trent cashing in Kai in that inning was huge,” starting pitcher Caleb Cassie said.

Pitching was the story once again between these two teams. The AppleSox were led by Quincy Vassar who pitched all eight innings for Wenatchee. He would strike out four batters with two walks and three hits allowed. Despite his dominance, Vassar would earn the loss as the Bells finally got to him in that eighth inning.

The Bells second shutout of the series was started by Caleb Cassie in his first home start since 2023 where he saw two home appearances with the team last season. Cassie is a returner and has shifted to a starter this summer. Cassie went five innings with only three hits allowed and one batter walked with five strikeouts. 

“What was working for me today was working on a new slurve…it worked for me today. I got some swings and misses and got some weak contact,” Cassie said.

Nick Lewis would pitch a scoreless sixth inning despite allowing the first two hitters to reach on singles. Jack Svinth took the ball for a 1-2-3 top of the seventh inning. In the eighth, Sax Matson pitched a no-hit inning which would earn him the win tonight, his second of the season. Ryan Heppner came in as the closer in the ninth and got his first save of the season.

“It was good, they’re a tough team and they put good swings on the ball…the biggest thing was trying to get ahead,” Cassie said.

Wenatchee left eight runners on base with multiple scoring chances but could not get the hits when they needed them the most. The Bells shutout the AppleSox for the second time this season and shut them out for the fifth time in three years. Mallone went 2 for 3 at the plate. Shedlock had the go-ahead RBI and Harrison scored the winning run on his 1 for 2 night.

Tomorrow at 1:35 p.m. the Bells and the AppleSox face off to determine the winner of the North Division. The AppleSox currently have the tiebreaker against Edmonton as does Bellingham so the winner tomorrow will likely receive the automatic playoff berth in August.

Get your tickets at bellstickets.com and come cheer on your Bellingham Bells towards a first half title. Watch the games on the WCL Live Streaming Site and listen live to every home game on the Bells Mixlr channel.

“Bellingham we need you to show up to the Joe tomorrow. We got a big game and I know the guys sure are excited. We want nothing more than to take care of business tomorrow,” Cassie said.

Tonight’s game recap is presented by Everstrong Physical Therapy and Performance.