The Bellingham Bells Broadcasting Network...

The Bellingham Bells Broadcasting Network...
Home of the Bells, Joe Martin Field

Thursday, June 24, 2010

All road trip pics/interviews are now posted

Hey folks! Sorry again that I haven't posted in quite some time...the road is one crazy place :)
Posted under the interview page, there are new conversations with Ben Ruff, Chris Sturdivant, Charlie Markson, Cody Fassold, and Cordell Greene.
Also, new pics are up of the last stop on the road trip, Kelowna, B.C.
Go Bells!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

New Pictures/Interviews Up!

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days everybody! Life on the road with the team has gotten hectic!

Just posted some new pictures of the Wenatchee field, as well as yesterday's interview with Cordell Greene, under the "WCL Stadiums" page and "Interviews" page, respectfully.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Elks Win in Extras

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days everybody! Wednesday's game was rained out and the Bells got an off-day yesterday. New interviews with closer J.J. McLeod and coach Matthews are posted on the interview page.

For the second time in three games, the Bellingham Bells went into extra innings tied 2-2. On Tuesday, the Bells won 3-2 over Corvallis in 12 innings. But on Friday night the visiting Bend Elks beat the Bells 3-2 in 10 innings to open a three game series at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham, WA.

Bells starter Tyrell Poggemeyer threw seven strong innings, and reliever Ben Ruff, although he allowed the winning run, threw extremely well: combined the pitchers only allowed six hits, walked one, and struck out 15.

Junnior Dishmey-Perez again came up with an RBI for Bellingham, his sixth of the young season. Chris Casazza, in his first game as a Bellingham Bell, added on the second run in the sixth inning on a double. Unfortunately, the two runs weren’t enough when Tommy Richards from Washington State drove in what would be the game winner on a texas-leaguer barely over the head of Casazza at first base.

The Bells continue their series with the Elks tomorrow evening at Joe Martin Field at 6:30pm.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Bells Win 12th-Inning Thriller

In tonight's game, the Corvallis Knights were like a fly that the Bells had to keep swatting away. Annoying, aggressive, and it seemed like the guys couldn't smack it hard enough for it to leave.

Good news is, even though it took 12 innings, Bellingham beat Corvallis to open this three-game series with a 3-2 victory.

Bellingham was leading the Knights 2-1 heading into the ninth inning when Corvallis scored a run of their own, sending the game into extra innings. The teams duked it out pitch-for-pitch, but it was Bellingham second baseman Junnior Dishmey-Perez who stroked a line-drive up the middle to win the 3-2 ballgame.

In his last day in a Bells uniform, starting pitcher Brandon Andreini threw a gem: 8.1 innings, 6 hits, and only one run; he also escaped four jams with multiple runners in scoring position, including two bases-loaded, inning-ending double-plays. J.J. McLeod made his second appearance in as many games, but Ben Ruff, in his first time on the mound as a Bell, came away with the win when he retired the side in the 12th.

All but two Bellingham batters produced hits in the victory, including Frank Desico who went 2/5 and singled to load the bases for Perez in the 12th inning. Desico has compiled three RBIs and a .250 average. Looking at stats after the game, it's clear that defense and pitching have saved the team thus far: no regular player has a batting average over .275...so thank goodness for the unbelievable efforts from starters Tyrell, Cordell, and Brandon (tonight).

It was strange looking at the Bells on the field today, since most of them weren't in their usual positions. Coach Matthews said that today was "our fill-in, fill-in lineup," since many of the players returned to their respective schools to take finals...Bellingham had Dishmey-Perez at second, Desico at short, Sam Richter at third in his first game, and Markson, a CF, out in left.

The Bells improved their record to 2-1 and tied the Kitsap Blue Jackets for first place in the West Division of the West Coast League, while the Knights stayed in third with a 1-3 record. Bend and Cowlitz have yet to play.

I'll be broadcasting tomorrow night's game, 6:30, at Joe Martin Field, on www.bellinghambells.com. Make sure to tune in to the Cascade Radio Group pregame show, where we'll interview a Coach Matthews and a player. See you then!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Opening Series Finale Rained Out

The Bells woke up today hoping to ride their wave of momentum from last night's 5-3 victory over the vising Kelowna Falcons, but the Washington weather had other plans. It was raining all morning and both teams agreed to cancel the game. The rain was pretty bad on its own, but the field was absolutely drenched the whole way around.

Bells GM Justin Stottlemyre told me that the teams will make up today's game when Bellingham travels to Kelowna from June 21-23.

Owner Bobby Brett was in town today, so instead of just saying "go home," he was gracious enough to take the whole team and front office out to lunch at Boundary Bay Brewery in downtown Bellingham! We had a great time, and it was nice getting to personally meet more of the players.

Tomorrow's game is still a-go as far as I know. The Bells open up their series against the league's marquee franchise, the Corvallis Knights. The Knights made the WCL championship last season but were upended by the defending champion Wenatchee Applesox.

Corvallis is regularly ranked in PG Crosschecker's list of top 10 summer collegiate teams, and I'm sure that we'll see them there by season's end...they're fantastic every year: in the last three seasons they've won the championship once and finished as the runner-up twice.

I'll be calling the game live on www.bellinghambells.com, tune in for first pitch at 6:30!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Bells Bounce Back; Tie Series 1-1

A good night all-around! I got to broadcast my first game of the season, and the Bells picked up their first win of the 2010 campaign. Before the game, coach Matthews and third baseman Junnior Dishmey-Perez were gracious to provide insightful interviews; click the "interviews" link to access them. Here's how tonight went down:

The Bellingham boys redeemed themselves after giving away opening night with a 5-3 victory tonight against the Kelowna Falcons. Cordell Greene threw seven shutout innings in his first appearance in the Bells uniform, and the Bells evened the series.

Cordell used an impressive mix of pitches, most notably his fastball (topped out at 93 mph), to brush back opposing hitters. Although he allowed 10 hits, he kept the Falcons at bay by escaping situations with runners-on-board by letting his defense make plays for him. Greene walked three and struck out two during his time on the mound before giving way to the bullpen. The icebox surrendered three runs in the eighth, but J.J. McLeod came in and earned the save.

The Bellingham bats lit up early in the game similar to opening night, knocking in four runs in the first four innings, two of which came off a fourth inning, two-RBI double by second baseman Frank Desico. When the Bells back was against the wall with a narrow 4-3 lead in the eighth, it was returning outfielder Brady Locker who hit a sacrifice fly to bring home the insurance run.

Link to box score: http://westcoast.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=5551

If you look closely, an exciting stat is that every hitter in our starting lineup, including Danny Hennings (who came off the bench to pinch hit) ended up with a hit, and most ended with a walk or HBP.

We get the Falcons for the series finale tomorrow, and it's going to be interesting to see who both coaches put their confidence in to win the opening weekend set. The broadcast will once again be picked up by AM 930 KBAI, so I won't be doing the game, but I'll still have interviews posted tomorrow night! Check back about 11:00pm, see you then!

Friday, June 4, 2010

A Rough Opening Night

Local radio AM 930 KBAI picked up the broadcast of today’s opening day matchup, so this was one of the few games that I (unfortunately) wasn’t able to call! I would have loved to welcome you to “The Joe” for 2010's first pitch, but instead you were treated to Mark and Tom from KBAI with the play-by-play.

After a smile-enducing six innings, when the Bells had a 5-2 lead, it looked like smooth sailing next to the northwest coastline (it had rained earlier in the day, but it ended up being a nice night!). However, they gave up a seventh inning scoring spree to the Kelowna Falcons and suffered a 10-7 opening night loss.

Bells ace Tyrell Poggemeyer started the game and was impressive through six innings, striking out four and allowing only two runs. Then, in a critical, and stomach-churning, seventh inning, the B-Town Boys surrendered five runs. The bullpen went on to walk five consecutive batters in the next inning and gave up three runs.

On the offensive side, the lineup jumped out to an early lead in the second inning when catcher Mike Chiarelli pounded a three-run double into right-centerfield. The subsequent inning yielded two more runs when returning first baseman Beau Brett smashed a shot into right, producing two runs. The boys from Bellingham mounted a comeback in the bottom of the eighth inning on a fielder’s choice and a past ball, but it wasn’t enough for the Bells to take a victory.

Here's a link to the box score: http://westcoast.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=5549&teamid=3135

There are plenty of reasons that the Bells didn't show too well tonight. I pointed out in my last post that most of our big-name players aren't here yet (NCAA tourney), so we had a roster of players who, on average, haven't faced live pitching for about two weeks. But the same can be said for the Falcons, so chalk it up to that horrid seventh inning. Tyrell had tossed about 95 pitches and Coach Kevin Matthews was reluctant to yank him since he'd been wonderful until that point.

The bats were cold after the first few frames, most notably from the top of the lineup: the Bells' first four hitters produced two hits in 17 combined ABs. This stat I'm sure will improve once the season gets rolling, but it's something to get working on in the cage nonetheless.

Coach Matthews told me after the game that Cordell Greene will get the start tomorrow. He's one of the best small-college players in the country, and the coach tells me that he's pretty sure that by the time school roles around in September, Cordell won't be a "small-college" pitcher anymore. What's the rumor? Tune in tomorrow night to find out!

First pitch from JMF is agian 6:30, click the link on www.belllinghambells.com to find the stream.