June 8th turned out to be another warm evening in the ballpark and the Bellingham Bells shut out the Cowlitz Black Bears 5-0.
The Bells came away with the win on only four hits. #2 Cole Yoshida leadoff for the Bells and provided one hit to left field in the first inning. Oddly enough, no hits for the Bells in the second inning but managed to score three runs off of two batters being hit-by-pitch and an error on the opposing first baseman. It worked out in the Bells favor giving them a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. In the third inning, center fielder #1 Andrew Valdez had his first hit of the evening with a single and a stolen base, then later scoring on a single by #27 Yohan Dessutreault. Putting the Bells ahead 4-0 in the bottom of the third inning. The rest of the game was scoreless up until the eighth inning when #11 Nate Kirkpatrick gets hit-by-pitch, then advances to 2nd on a walk behind him and continues to third on a wild pitch and scores on an error by the Black Bears 1st baseman, giving the Bells an insurance run. Score 5-0.
Coming off of the second inning with a 3-0 lead Bellingham was feeling great and continued to show it on the field. With no errors which helped contribute to the win. Will Franklin had stellar pitching this evening, going five innings and only allowing one hit. This pitching by Franklin kept the Bells in the game and ultimatly concluded in a win.
The Bell are away for the rest of the weekend but they will return back to Joe Martin Field on Tuesday June 13th, with a start time of 6:35 p.m. against the Kelowna Falcons.