By Pierre LaBossiere
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — The Lefties, driving to stay in the playoff hunt, couldn’t muster much offense and got a rough outing from pitcher Joe Kinsky as they fell to one of the best teams in the West Coast League, the Corvallis Knights, 11-3.
Kinsky allowed just four hits, but walked 10 batters in 5 2/3 innings to allow six earned runs. Meanwhile, the Lefties were only able to collect three hits at the plate and struck out a whopping 20 times against a trio of Corvallis pitchers.
Despite those lopsided numbers, the game, a makeup of a rainout from July, actually remained close until the sixth inning.
The Lefties trailed just 1-0 entering the fifth inning. Corvallis had a three-run inning fifth to take a four-run lead, but the Lefties responded in the bottom of the fifth with two runs of their own on an RBI single by Gavin Rork and a run scored by JJ Valencia on a wild pitch, making it 4-2.
The Knights blew the game open with three more runs in the sixth and two each in the seventh and eighth innings to build up an 11-3 lead.
The loss hurts but doesn’t kill the Lefties’ postseason hopes. Port Angeles (12-10) is 3 1/2 games behind Victoria and Wenatchee (both 15-6) in the North Division standings with six games left to play. Fortunately for the Lefties, all six of their games are against Victoria, with three games here this week and three more this weekend in Victoria. If the Lefties can win five out six against the HarbourCats, they will pass Victoria in the standings. They will need some help from Ridgefield and Corvallis in beating Wenatchee to be able to pass the AppleSox. Fortunately for the Lefties, Wenatchee has three games with 15-6 Corvallis (the Knights have several Oregon State University players on their roster), so the AppleSox’s road to the second half North Division title will not be easy.
Rork, Dylan Cyr and Port Angeles’ Carson Jackson all hit singles for the Lefties. Jackson, a former Roughrider who now plays at Shoreline College, also picked up his first RBI of his WCL career.
The Lefties played Victoria Tuesday after press deadline, they play at 6:35 p.m. today, then finish their home regular season at 6:35 p.m. Thursday before traveling across the Strait of Juan de Fuca for three potentially crucial games against the HarbourCats at their home.
Corvallis 11, Port Angeles 3
Knights 1 0 0 0 3 3 2 2 0 — 11 9 2
Lefties 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 — 3 3 1
WP: Gerber LP: Kinsky
Pitching
Knights — Gerber 5.2IP, 2H, 0ER, 2BB, 14K; Caviglia 2IP, H, ER, 4BB, 4K; Meyer 1.1IP, BB, 2K.
Lefties — Kinsky 5.2IP, 4H, 6ER, 10BB, 3K Robinson 1.1IP, 4H, 2ER, K; Musselwhite 1IP, H, 2ER, 3BB; Cyr 1IP.
Hitting
Knights — Knight 3-4, 2R, 2SB; Gretler 1-3, 2B, 3R; Yovetich 1-2, R, 3RBI, 2SF; Dixon 2-4, HR, 2B, R, 2RBI; Atwood 1-1, HR, R, RBI; Tammaro 1-5, 2B, 2RBI.
Lefties — Jackson 1-3, RBI; Rork 1-4, RBI, SB; Cyr 1-2, 2R.
