The Bellingham Bells defeated the Cascade Collegiate League showcase team by a final score of 7-2 on Saturday night. Bellingham had nine hits to Cascade’s four.

Cascade jumped to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st. Former Bell Luke Rohleder lead off with a single, and Cascade ended up loading the bases with no outs against starter Thatcher Hurd. Hurd surrendered a walk with the bases loaded, and Rohleder came in to score.

The score held until the bottom of the 5th inning. DH Charlie Saum led off the inning with a single, and with one out OF Emilio Corona turned on a curveball and sent a 380-foot moon shot over the left field wall for his first HR of the summer. Corona earned Player of the Game honors for his efforts, as he went 2-4 with 2 RBI, a run scored and a stolen base.

Cascade scored the tying run in the top of the 7th on a Luke Rohleder RBI single, and we entered the 8th inning tied 2-2. 2B Yugo Hamakawa and OF Daniel Gernon led off the inning with a pair of walks, and Ty Saunders singled to load the bases with no outs. Ezra Samperi pinch ran for Hamakawa, and he scored the go-ahead run on a walk drawn by C Luis Aviles. The next batter was OF Grayson Sterling, and he scored two on an RBI single. Charlie Saum scored Aviles on a double, and 3B AJ Davis scored saum on a single. All told, the Bells scored five runs off of five hits in the inning, enough to put the game away.

Thatcher Hurd (3.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) let the first three batters he faced reach, but settled down for three quality innings. Kai Francis was hitless in relief, tossing 3.0 innings and only allowing one walk while striking out three. Kenji Pallares (1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) allowed the tying run in the 7th, and Hunter Alberini (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K) earned the win.

Bellingham is back in action on Sunday against Cascade. First pitch is set for 12:00 PM, and will only be 7 innings long due to expected high temperatures.