By Pierre LaBossiere
Peninsula Daily News
WALLA WALLA — The Lefties remained dominant over the Sweets, blowing up for 19 hits, including eight extra-base hits, in a 14-3 shellacking of Walla Walla.
Seven different Lefties had multiple hits in Saturday’s win, which featured the most runs scored by the Lefties in any game this year. Michael Ciancio had a home run, a double and three RBIs.
Not to be overlooked by all that offense, the Lefties’ Nick Bonniksen pitched five outstanding innings, giving up just one earned run on two hits for his third win of the season. Bonniksen and his teammate Wyatt Haccou lead the West Coast League in victories with three each.
Austyn Tengan continued his torrid hitting, going 4-6 with a double and a triple and three runs scored. Tengan raised his average from .432 to .465, third-best in the WCL. He is also fourth in the WCL with 20 base hits.
Taylor Adams also had four hits, going 4 for 6 with two RBIs. Jake Portaro went 2 for 6 with a double and a triple, two runs scored and two RBIs. Seth Freed went 3 for 6 with two runs scored, while Kevin Kendall went 2 for 5 with a double, a run scored and an RBI. Alec Chaney was 2 for 4 with a run scored.
The Lefties were actually behind in the fourth inning, trailing 3-1 when they scored seven runs in the next three innings to seize control of the game. Ciancio got the party started, leading off the fourth inning with a solo home run. Then Kendall drove in a run with a double and Tengan drove in another with a single as the Lefties took a lead they would never give up.
Aaron Charles and Jake Suddreth also pitched well, going a total of four innings, giving up just two hits and no runs to close out the game.
The Lefties (7-9) have had a lot of success so far this season against the Sweets, going 4-0 against them and outscoring them 30-8.
Sunday was a travel day for the Lefties. They will play at 1 p.m. Monday at Victoria, then will return home from their first long road trip of the year on Tuesday, beginning their first series against the Bend Elks.
Port Angeles 14, Walla Walla 3
Lefties 0 1 0 3 2 2 0 4 2 — 14 19 2
Sweets 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 3 4 2
WP: Nick Bonniksen LP: Scott Parker
Pitching
Lefties — Bonniksen 5IP, 2H, ER, 4K, 3BB; Charles 3IP, H, K, BB; Suddreth 1IP, H 0ER, K.
Sweets — Parker 4IP, 7H, 4ER, 3K, 2BB; Dolezal 1IP, 4H, 4ER, K, BB; Stanton 1IP, 0H, 0ER; Vines 2IP, 6H, 4ER, 3K; Mincin 1IP, 2H, ER, 2K.
Hitting
Lefties — Tengan 4-6, 2B, 3B, 3R, RBI; Adams 4-6, R, 2RBI; Freed 3-6, 2R; Ciancio 2-5, HR, 2B, 2R, 3RBI; Portaro 2-6, 2B, 3B, 2R, 2RBI; Chaney 2-4, 2B, R; Kendall 2-5, 2B, R, RBI; Hagan 0-3, RBI.
Sweets — Deere 1-3, R, RBI; Zimmer 1-4, RBI; Nyquist 1-3, R.