By Joe Traub

Port Angeles Lefties

KELOWNA, B.C. — Different day? Different opponent? Different city? Different country? None of this made any difference to the Port Angeles Lefties, who rode the arm of Dwayne Angebrandt to a series-opening 4–3 victory over Kelowna on Tuesday.

Angebrandt scattered six hits while throwing seven scoreless innings. He benefitted from his defense, who turned double plays to end the first, fourth and seventh innings with him on the hill.

In the fourth, Kelowna’s Brett Tressen hit a fly ball to deep left field where Ethan Groff made the catch a step in front of the warning track. Groff then fired a one-hop throw to third base to nail James Shimishita who had attempted to tag up.

The Lefties offense did enough in the early innings for the victory.

Evan Hurn singled home Gavin Rork in the first inning for a lead, then the visitors plated two runs in the fourth inning without hitting the ball out of the infield. One run scored on an error, then Ian Fitzgerald brought home Diego Altamarino with a groundout to make it 3–0.

Rork’s sacrifice fly in the sixth inning brought home Trevor Rosenberg with the final Port Angeles tally of the night. The Falcons rallied in the eighth when Cole Cummings and Marcus Guarin blasted back-to-back home runs off Michael Musselwhite to make it a one-run game.

Jack Schlotman took over from there, facing the minimum six batters for a two-inning save. Schlotman struck out two and got a weak grounder to end the contest, which marked the Lefties seventh win in eight games across non-league and WCL play.

Port Angeles and Kelowna played late Wednesday and wrap up the series today at 6:35 p.m.

Port Angeles 4, Kelowna 3

PA 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 — 4 9 0

Kel. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0— 3 9 3

WP: Angebrandt LP: Voelzke SV: Schlotman

Pitching

Port Angeles — Angebrandt 7IP, 6H, 4BB, 4K; Musselwhite 0.0IP, 2H, 3ER, K; Schlotman 2IP, H, 2K.

Kelowna — Voelzke 4IP, 3H, 3R, ER, BB, 5K; Turner 5IP, 6H, ER, BB.

Hitting

Port Angeles — Rork 0-3, HP, SB, R, 2RBI; Christian 3-5, SB, 2B; Hurn 1-4, RBI; Rosenberg 2-3, 2R, RBI; Altomarie 1-3, BB; Halligan 1-5, RBI; Palmegiani 0-4, RBI.

Kelowna — Cummings 2-3, HR, 2RBI; Sede 2-4; Tressen 2-4; Shimashita 1-4, 2B, RBI.