Box Score

SPRINGFIELD — The Bellingham Bells came away with a series win over the Springfield Drifters after a 12-11 victory Sunday, June 7 at Hamlin Sports Complex. Two four-run innings helped the Bells finish a three-game road series with bookending wins.

The Drifters jumped on Bellingham’s starter Lane Simonsen with a run in the first inning. Tyler Peshke crushed a two-run home run in the top of the second, but Simonsen wouldn’t get through the bottom half of the inning.

Springfield posted a four-run inning against Simonsen and Cal Young had to finish the frame with the help of two strikeouts. In the top of the third, Matt Churchill singled and a Drifter error on the same play allowed Jorge Olivera-Gutierrez to score and cut Springfield’s lead to 5-3.

Aidan Colin took the ball for the bottom of the third and pitched it scoreless. The Bells took a 7-5 lead after a four run fourth inning where Ty Rusko doubled with the bases loaded to score three runs and later scored himself on a wild pitch.

The Drifters got a run back in the bottom of the fourth and after putting two runners on in the fifth, Colin was relieved by Zach Elsos. Springfield went on to score four runs in the inning and led 10-7.

In the sixth inning, Churchill singled to drive in a run, Jake Lyall had an RBI double, Peshke walked in a run and Aspen Alexander had a sacrifice fly. Springfield added a run in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game, 11-11.

Olivera-Gutierrez brought in the winning run in the seventh inning by scoring Bo Shinkle on a groundout. Elsos pitched until the ninth and struck out six batters to earn the win. Frank Willius struck out three of the four batters he faced in the ninth to pick up his first save as a Bell.

Bellingham improved to 5-4 in a game where all but one batter had a hit for the Bells. Shinkle was the only hitless Bell, but he walked three times and scored three times as the leadoff man. Rusko and Peshke tied for the team high in RBI with three each. 

The Bells are back home for six-straight games. Bellingham begins a three-game series against the Nanaimo NightOwls at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday, June 9. Get your tickets at bellstickets.com.