By Pierre LaBossiere
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — The Lefties ran into a buzzsaw from a trio of Elks’ pitchers, who allowed just three hits and struck out 13 batters in a 4-1 win over Port Angeles on Sunday.
The Lefties threatened twice in the eighth and ninth innings, but couldn’t get a big hit to break the game open.
The Lefties managed just three singles against Ryan Kaser, G.T. Blackman and Coen Wynne.
The Lefties’ duo of Josh Thompson and Nathan Bonck pitched well enough, but couldn’t get any offensive support. Thompson went six innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out nine while walking five. Bonck pitched the final three innings, allowing no hits and two walks while striking out two.
Port Angeles scored its run in the first inning when Justin Fugitt got on base with a single and moved to third on an error and a Ethan Groff. Groff and Fugitt then executed a double steal, with Fugitt coming in to score as the Lefties took a 1-0 lead.
Bend responded with all four of its runs scoring in the third. The Elks got a two-run single, scored on a sacrifice fly and scored a fourth run on an error.
The Lefties rallied twice late. They filled the bases with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Baxter Halligan had a pinch-hit single, Alex Garcia walked and Charlie Nasuti walked to load the bases. But, on a 3-2 pitch, the Elks’ Wynne got Connor Denning to strike out.
In the ninth inning, Nasuti also made a great defensive play, catching a ball at the fence in deep left field to rob the Elks’ Gabe Gonzalez of a home run.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Lefties threatened again, as Damiano Palmegiani was hit by a pitch and Garcia singled, bringing the tying run to the plate in Nasuti. But he grounded out to third to end the threat and the game as Bend took the rubber game of the three-game series.
Bend 4, Port Angeles 1
Elks 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 4 7 1
Lefties 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 3 4
WP: Kaser LP: Thompson
Pitching
Bend — Kaser 5IP, 2H, 0ER, 4BB, 6K; Blackman 1.2IP, H, 0ER, 2BB, 3K; Wynne 2.1IP, 0H, 0ER, 4K.
Port Angeles — Thompson 6IP, 7H, 3ER, 5BB, 9K; Bonck 3IP, 0H, 0ER, 2BB, 2K.
Hitting
Bend — Parsons 1-4, RBI, SB, SF; Fernlund 1-4, R, 3SB; Needham 1-3, R, 2SB, 2BB; Young 2-4, RBI, BB, SB; Padilla 1-3, R.
Port Angeles — Fugitt 1-3, R, SB; Groff 0-2, BB, SB; Halligan 1-2; Garcia 1-1, 2BB.
Saturday’s win
PORT ANGELES — In a see-saw battle on Saturday, the Port Angeles Lefties held tough and lumbered up on their way to a 5–4 victory over the Bend Elks at Civic Field for the Lefties’ fourth win in their past five games.
Trailing 1–0 in the fifth inning, the Lefties’ Alex Garcia singled with two outs and advanced to second when Gavin Rork drew a walk. Bend starter Michael Hansell was replaced by Alan Embree (son of the former Major League pitcher Alan Embree) who promptly surrendered a three-run home run to Justin Fugitt to give the Lefties a 3–1 lead. The blast was Fugitt’s first of the season.
The Elks quickly had an answer as designated hitter Dayton Provost lined a two-run shot to right field to tie the game in the sixth. But in the bottom half, C.J. Schauwecker led off with a solo shot to left-center off Embree to give the Lefties a 4–3 lead.
Bend tied it in the next frame on an error by Schauwecker, but once again the stalemate did not last. Garcia scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh and that ended up being the deciding run.
In his Lefties debut, Jordan Banholzer worked around a pair of walks in the eighth inning and kept the Elks off the board. A.C. Chavez got two strikeouts and a groundout in the ninth to pick up a save and preserve the victory.
The Lefties (10-13) have Monday off and will host Highline at Civic Field at 6:35 p.m. for a nonleague game.
Joe Traub of the Port Angeles Lefties contributed to this article.
