The Bellingham Bells defeated the Edmonton Riverhawks 10-3 Sunday afternoon in Edmonton to avoid the series sweep, after losing the first two. The Bells collected 11 hits, five of them doubles, with multi-hit games from Kyle Parkman and Touissaint Bythewood. Ryan Beitel (5-1) picked up his fifth win of the season, tied for the most in the WCL, tossing seven innings with two runs allowed and a season-high eight strikeouts.
Bellingham got off to a quick start in the first, loading the bases for Blake Conrad, who got beaned to walk in Parkman for the first run of the game. Afterwards, Colin Blanchard hit an RBI single that scored Hunter Komine, then Evan Overmars drew a walk to score Malcolm Moore, making it 3-0.
The Hawks responded with runs in the first and third to bring them within one, but a bases-loaded double by Komine cleared the bases to highlight a four-run fifth inning for the Bells. They extended their lead to 9-2 in the eighth on a 2-run double by Overmars.
The Riverhawks scored off a wild pitch in the eighth, but the Bells had the last word from an RBI double by Moore to end the game at 10-3. With the double, Moore extended his hitting streak to seven, having safely hit in every game he’s played for the Bells. Parkman pushed his own hitting streak to nine games with a 2-3 day at the plate with three runs.
Matt Masciangelo (1-2) took the loss for the Hawks, who had a rough night on the mound as a team. The Bells were on fire from the plate, and left even more on the table with 14 runners stranded on base throughout the game. They improve to 30-17 with the victory, 11-10 in the second half. The Riverhawks fall back to under .500 at 23-24, though an impressive 12-9 in the second half.
The Bells will return home to Joe Martin Field on Tuesday night to face the Victoria HarbourCats in their second-to-last series of the regular season before heading into the playoffs.