The Bellingham Bells defeated the Highline Bears on Saturday night by a final score of 10-0. The Bells are currently outscoring Highline in the series, 29-0.

Just like the night before, Bellingham jumped ahead in the 1st inning. Nick McLain was the one to break into the scoring column first, blasting a 386-ft leadoff HR. Yugo Hamakawa followed it with a single, and Cole Hinkelman put him in scoring position with a double. Luis Aviles scored Hamakawa on an RBI fielder’s choice, and Alex Lambeau scored Hinkelman with an RBI single to make it a 3-0 game.

Neither team scored until the 5th inning, thanks in part to a tremendous start from Tommy O’Rourke (3.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K). He struck out 7 of the 12 batters he faced, all on his slider. For his efforts, he was named Player of the Game. Zack Simon (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K) tossed two innings of hitless baseball in relief.

Bellingham broke the game open with a 6-run 5th inning. Hamakawa led off with a walk and was pinch-ran by AJ Davis. Cole Hinkelman then reached on an error and Luis Aviles walked to load the bases. Alex Lambeau then drew an RBI walk to plate the first run of the inning, and Malakhi Knight followed him with a bases-clearing 3-RBI double. Emilio Corona added the final two runs on a well-hit 2-run HR, his 6th of the summer.

Bellingham came into this game with an ERA of 1.03 against non-league opponents, and only allowed 2 hits in their second straight shutout. After O’Rourke and Simon tossed five scoreless innings, Justin Tucker (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K) and Carter Parcher (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K) finished off the game. In total, Bellingham recorded 12 strikeouts.

The Bells will host the Bears for the series finale tomorrow, and it is the final regular-season home game this year. You can get tickets at www.bellstickets.com