By Pierre LaBossiere
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Buoyed by a grand slam home run from Sean Roby, an outstanding pitching performance from Nick Bonniksen and a huge Fourth of July crowd, the Lefties had a huge six-run inning to beat the Gresham GreyWolves 6-1.
Bonnik-sen went six innings, giving up just two hits — one of them a second-inning home run to the GreyWolves’ Alec de Watteville — and striking out seven with zero walks. De Watteville’s homer was the only dent in Bonniksen’s otherwise near-perfect outing. Out of Bonniksen’s 83 pitches, 57 were for strikes (69 percent).
Nick Johnston and Jake Suddreth pitched the final three innings, giving up a combined one hit and two walks while striking out five. In all, Lefties’ pitchers totaled 12 strikeouts.
During the Lefties’ big sixth inning, Aaron Charles, Martin Pauwells, Austyn Tengan and Brody Kato all had hits. Jake Portaro had an RBI single with Roby’s devastating blow clearing the bases.
Tengan and Michael Ciancio finished the game with two hits each while Pauwells had a double and Taylor Adams a triple.
The Lefties played before an announced Fourth of July crowd of 2,238, one of their best crowds of the year.
The Lefties (11-19, 1-2 in second half) played Gresham Wednesday after press deadline. They finish with Gresham at 6:35 p.m. tonight, then the Bellingham Bells come to town Friday.
The Lefties played their first home game in 10 days after a rough 1-8 road trip. The Lefties have a winning record at home and get 19 home games in July.
Notes:
With the 2,238 announced attendance at the Fourth of July game, the Lefties are averaging 1,266 attendance per game, right smack in the middle of the WCL.
The Lefties are sixth in attendance out of 13 teams in the league, despite Port Angeles being one of the smallest markets. Victoria leads with an average attendance of 1,786.
Roby’s home run was his fourth of the year. His four RBIs gives him 24 on the season, good for third in the West Coast League. Bonniksen’s win was his fourth, tied for most in the WCL. Kelowna with a record of 17-10 in the first half, was declared the winner of the North Division first half.
Port Angeles 6, Gresham 1
Wolves 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 3 1
Lefties 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 x — 6 10 1
WP: Bonniksen LP: Baayoun
Pitching
Wolves — Baayoun 6IP 6ER, 9K; Danzeisen 2IP, 1H, 0ER, 2K.
Lefties — Bonniksen 6IP, 2H, 1ER, 7K, 0BB; Johnston 2IP, 0H, 0ER, 2BB, 3K; Suddreth 1IP, 1H, 0ER, 0BB, 2K.
Hitting
Wolves — Puskarich 2-4, 2B; de Watteville 1-2, R, HR, RBI, BB,
Lefties — Tengen 2-4, R; Roby 1-4, 4RBI, R; Ciancio 2-4, 2B; Adams 1-2, R, Charles 1-4, R; Pauwells 1-4, R; Portaro 1-4, R, RBI.
Lefties Austyn Tengan 2nd baseman scoops a ball hit his way and throws out the runner from the Greshem Greywolves to his first baseman #22 Michael Ciancio.
