Bells hold off Lefties for 4-3 win

BELLINGHAM — The Bellingham Bells earned a series win over the Port Angeles Lefties with a 4-3 win on Wednesday, June 24 at Joe Martin Field. The Bells were able to survive a late push from the Lefties in the ninth inning to improve to 17-6 after nine straight wins.

Kole Laubach was the starter for Bellingham and was striking out Lefties left and right through three innings. He had six strikeouts and allowed one run on a wild pitch. Overall he let up three hits and a walk. Bellingham held a 2-1 lead after he exited thanks to a two-run second inning.

In the second, Tyler Peshke doubled to begin the frame. After a single by Aspen Alexander, Dillon Moss hit a double to score Peshke. Moss scored on a single to center field by KG Hattori.

Jordan Chancellor began the fourth inning, but was pulled after allowing the bases to be loaded on three walks. With two outs in the inning, Kenneth Johnson stranded the runners and kept Bellingham up 2-1. Johnson went on to pitch the fifth and sixth innings scoreless, which earned him his first win of the season.

The Bells picked up two crucial runs in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI double by Alexander and an RBI single by Moss. Cal Young worked around some traffic in the seventh and eighth innings for two scoreless frames and had three strikeouts.

Frank Willius entered for the ninth inning, but allowed two walks to start his night. Port Angeles handed Bellingham a free out on a sacrifice bunt and the Lefties scored their second run on another wild pitch. After a sacrifice fly, it was 4-3 with two outs. Willius forced a deep flyout to left field that Jaden Jackson tracked down to claim the win and earn Willius his fifth save of the summer.

Moss led the Bells going 2-for-2 with a double, walk, run scored and two RBI. Peshke had two hits and two runs and Alexander was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run. The Bells had nine hits total and drew two walks. Peshke, Alexander and Moss had one double each.

Bellingham is looking for a sweep of the Lefties in tomorrow’s 6:35 p.m. game. The Bells are tied with the Wenatchee AppleSox in the North Division standings. With four games left in both team’s first halves, Bellingham needs to win one more game than Wenatchee to earn an automatic playoff berth since the AppleSox have the head-to-head tiebreaker.