Bells finish as North Division runner-ups

August 15, 2024 12:23 pm

The Bellingham Bells celebrating their North Divisional Series win over Edmonton on Aug. 12 at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham, Wash. The Bells season ended with a 1-0 loss to Wenatchee in the North Division Championship Game last night. Photo by Andrew Forhan.

Related Links: Box Score | Bellingham Bells Playoff Roster

The Bellingham Bells lost 1-0 to the Wenatchee AppleSox in the 2024 West Coast League North Division Championship Game. With the loss the Bells ended their postseason run as the runner-ups in the North, finishing the year with an overall record of 34-24.

Sax Matson had the start where he would match his career high strikeout total of five in just three innings. The lone run did score against Matson when the former Bellingham Bell Max Hartman doubled to score Cam Hoiland. Those two hits were two of three that Matson allowed in the start while also only walking one batter.

In the fourth inning Lathan Haywood took over for three and a third innings. Haywood surrendered four hits and one walk but kept Wenatchee to their only run. Colton Bower hit a ball in the sixth inning that was headed over the left field wall before Hoiland jumped up and robbed the potential game-tying home run.

The bases were loaded for the Bells in the top of the seventh inning with two outs. Gabe Henderson had been walked and Anthony Kodama singled behind him. Conner Smith was hit by a pitch and the Bells had their best chance to tie or take the lead. Colton Bower would ground out though and the Bells stranded the bases loaded.

Jacob Gillig and Ryan Heppner would continue the great pitching by the Bells staff tonight. Both did not allow a hit and each pitcher gave up one walk while getting one strike out. The Bells offense could not get to Evan Canfield who pitched seven innings for the AppleSox while only allowing three hits and one walk.

The final chance for the Bells was in the ninth inning where Jacob Mejia walked with one out. Henderson singled and two were on with one out. Kodama flew out to shallow center field for the second out. The final out came when Smith was struck out by Wenatchee’s closer Micah Bujacich and the AppleSox won 1-0, advancing them to the WCL Championship game where they will play the Portland Pickles on Friday.

The Bells four total team hits came from Trent Mallonee, Gabe Henderson, Anthony Kodama and Bryce Johnson. Bob Ralston in his first year as the Bellingham Bells head coach led us to a 32-22 regular season record, the number two seed in the WCL Playoffs and a runner-up finish in the North Division playoffs for the second year in a row. Steve Ward coached his pitching staff to the third best earned run average (ERA) in the WCL while having the third most total strikeouts and fourth least walks in the league.

Thank you to the fans that showed up every game and made the Bells the fourth highest team in attendance for the 2024 season. The Bells look forward to the 2025 season following a 2024 season where Joe Martin Field hosted the return of the WCL All-Star Game in Bellingham, Wash. This season was filled with memories, from six walk-off wins at home to the playoff games we won, thank you for a great 2024 year Bellingham, go Bells!

This game recap is presented by Everstrong Physical Therapy and Performance.