The Kelowna Falcons finished their nine-game West Coast League road trip with a big 12-5 win over the Cowlitz Black Bears on the Fourth of July in Longview, WA. This was Kelowna’s sixth straight series win, going 13-5 in that stretch.
The Falcons scored a pair of runs in the 1st inning on Saturday, as Brandon Oliver drew a bases loaded walk and Grant Meylan scored on a wild pitch.
Cowlitz responded with two of their own in the 3rd inning after Lane Lacrone’s acrobatic effort resulted in a throwing effort that allowed a 2nd run to score on what would have been the 3rd out of the inning.
The Falcons added another run in the 4th inning when Joey Crunkilton drove in Justin Flores after both entered the game as pinch hitters.
Kelowna kept extending their lead throughout the 5th and 6th, scoring 7 times as Oliver picked up his 2nd RBI of the game, and Flores had a 2-RBI double in the 5th.
Brady Miller worked 5 strong innings for Kelowna, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits.
In the 6th, the Falcons strung together 4 straight hits, as Max Carter drove in a pair and Gulden added an RBI, before Oliver picked up his 3rd of the game.
The Black Bears would respond with 3 runs in the 7th inning, but Josh Egan put the Falcons back up by 7 with a 2-run homerun in the 8th. The highlight of Egan’s 1st homer of the year was the silent treatment he received by his teammates when he came back to the dugout.
Jimmy Doyle, Marcus Ethen, and Alex Webb threw scoreless innings.
