AppleSox spoil Bellingham’s home opener

BELLINGHAM — The Bells dropped their home opener to the Wenatchee AppleSox 3-2 on Tuesday, June 2 at Joe Martin Field. A three-run sixth inning was all Wenatchee needed to outlast the Bells in game one of three between the North Division rivals.

Bellingham fed off its raucous home crowd in the first inning and plated an early run when Noah Cassie hit an infield single that caused an AppleSox error that scored Aspen Alexander from second base.

Lathan Haywood, the Bells starter, shoved four scoreless innings as the three-time Bell allowed two walks and three hits while striking out five batters. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth with a strikeout to cap his outing.

Mason Chien came in relief for Haywood in the fifth inning and posted a scoreless frame. After hitting the leadoff batter, Chien balked the runner to second and a wild pitch moved Wenatchee’s tying run into scoring position.

Joseph Coupland drove in the tying run for the AppleSox on a base hit. Chien punched out a batter, but then allowed a single and a walk to load the bases. Ryder Dingsdale inherited the bases loaded from the bullpen, but walked in a run and gave up a run on a sacrifice fly by former Bell Noah Figuered.

Dingsdale loaded the bases on three walks in the seventh, but Jordan Chancellor entered the game and secured an inning-ending double play to escape the frame with no damage. Chancellor and his 94-mph fastball went on to finish the game for the Bells totalling 2-2/3 innings that were near perfect except for one hit-by-pitch.

The Bells had one baserunner in the seventh and eighth innings, but stranded them each time. After Bryce Johnson legged out an infield single in the ninth, Matt Churchill scored Johnson on an RBI hit to left-center field. Ty Rusko struck out as the winning run at the plate and the Bells lost 3-2.

Churchill led Bellingham with two hits and is batting .500 through the first four games. The Bells had seven hits to Wenatchee’s six as Bellingham’s knocks came from: Alexander, Cassie, Johnson, Olivera-Gutierrez, Churchill and Jake Lyall.

The now 2-2 Bells look to even the three-game series against Wenatchee in tomorrow’s game, June 3, at 6:35 p.m. Whatcom County product Lane Simonsen, a Lynden alum, is set to start Wednesday’s game at Joe Martin Field.

Get your tickets at bellstickets.com or listen to the Bells radio broadcast on Mixlr or the West Coast League’s live streaming platform.