The Bellingham Bells opened a three-game series against the Nanaimo NightOwls with a 13-0 victory over their North Division counterparts. The Bells improved to 21-13 overall and 4-3 in the second half of the season while the NightOwls fell to 15-18 and 3-3 in the second half.

The game started with Tyler Van Dyke who would pitch six shutout innings with six strikeouts to no walks while allowing only two hits. Van Dyke pitched his first quality start of the season. 

“I just kinda went out there and had everything. Whenever you have that feeling you can go the distance and it becomes easy,” Van Dyke said.

The recently announced West Coast League All-Star is still yet to allow a run in 22 innings with a season total of 24 strikeouts.

“I’m really excited for that (the WCL All-Star game),” Van Dyke said. “I just wanna come out there and do what I can do and show people what I can do.”

In his six innings the Bells would score the entirety of their runs through the second and fifth innings. The Bells opened the high scoring night with a sacrifice fly from Anthony Kodama to score Colton Bower. Gavin Long followed that up with a hit into the gap of right-center field for a double to score Conner Smith. 

In the third inning the Bells put up another run with an RBI single from Jacob Mejia. Up 3-0, the Bells exploded for six runs in the fourth inning by the help of two defensive errors on the NightOwls. The runs were scored on six total hits in the inning with Mejia and Bower both driving in two runs on doubles. Nate Kirkpatrick also tallied an RBI in the fourth inning with a single that scored Long.

“One thing I like to put an emphasis on is when we put up a run I wanna go up there and throw a zero so when we’re putting up runs it becomes kinda a game like ‘I gotta match that’ and get those bats back to the plate,” Van Dyke said.

The cushion increased with four runs in the fifth. The pinch hitter, Bryce Johnson, led off the inning with a walk and the bases would be loaded on walks to Trent Mallonee and Roman Martin. Kirkpatrick hit a sacrifice fly to right field and Mejia got his fourth RBI of the night on his fourth hit of the game. Bower would score the run number 12 of the game on a sacrifice fly and Logan Degroot put up number 13 with an RBI single.

With a 13-0 lead, Nic Peterson entered the game in the seventh and completed the shutout by tossing the final three innings. Peterson allowed only two hits and a hit-by-pitch but did not walk any NightOwls and struck out one of them. The shutout ended at 13-0 for the Bells seventh straight win and their fourth straight league win.

The Bells on offense were very successful by putting up 17 total hits, a season high. Mejia had a 4 for 5 night at the plate with two doubles and put the cleanup in cleanup batter with his four RBIs. Bower had three RBI on just one hit in a 1 for 1 night where he was hit twice and got a double. Kirkpatrick went 2 for 5 with two RBIs. Mallonee continued his leadoff success with a 2 for 4 night, scoring two runs. Martin had just one hit but scored three times thanks to a pair of walks. Smith and Long both had two hits with Long tallying a double and an RBI. Degroot, Kodama and Johnson all had one hit as every starter picked up a hit tonight.

Tomorrow night the Bells and the NightOwls play game two of their three-game series at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham, Wash. The Bells look to grab a series win and follow up their seventh shutout of the season with another win on Salute to Service Weekend at the ballpark.

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