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!