PORT ANGELES — The Lefties got a spectacular pitching performance from Wyatt Haccou, who picked up his fourth win of the year, and hung on tight in a wild ninth-inning for a hard-earned 3-2 win over the Bellingham Bells, one of the top teams in the West Coast League.
Haccou went six innings in Saturday night’s win, giving up just three hits and zero walks while striking out seven. Jake Suddreth got the final three outs to pick up a save as the Bells rallied in the ninth inning and made the Lefties sweat with the winning run standing at second base.
The Lefties got on the board early, scoring in the first inning as Bells’ starter Holden Powell was wild. Powell gave up singles to Austyn Tengan and Marten Pauwells and walked Ian Nowak. With the bases loaded, he then walked Sean Roby, who picked up an RBI.
Powell settled down after that, blanking the Lefties over the next three innings. In the fifth, the Lefties’ Jake Portaro got on base after being hit by a pitch. He moved to second on a groundout, then came in to score on Pauwells’ second hit of the game to make it 2-0.
In the seventh, the Lefties tacked on what turned out to be a critical third run. Pauwells started the inning with his third hit of the game and Benny Kaleiwahea brought him home with a double to make it 3-0.
The game got dicey for the Lefties in the ninth. Nick Johnston gave up a single and a walk to start the inning, then Suddreth came in. He gave up one hit for a Bells run and got two batters to ground out, but on the second grounder, a Bells runner was able to come in on the fielder’s choice.
With a runner still on first, Suddreth gave up a walk to put the tying and winning runs on base, but he finally ended the game by getting the Bells’ Ryan Mendoza to ground out. It was Suddreth’s fourth save of the season.
Pauwells ended the game 3 for 4 with a run scored and an RBI. He had three of the Lefties’ seven hits.
The Lefties (13-21, 3-4 second half) played Bellingham on Sunday after press deadline. They have today off, then will play the Thurston County Senators in a nonleague game at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday.
Port Angeles 3, Bellingham 2
Bells 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 — 2 5 2
Lefties 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 x — 3 7 1
WP: Haccou LP: Powell SV: Suddreth
Pitching
Bells — Powell 5IP, 5H, 2ER, 3BB, 5K; Garnett 3IP, 2H, ER, K.
Lefties — Haccou 6IP, 3H, 0ER, 0BB, 7K; Hagan 1.1IP, 0H, 0ER, BB, 2K; Johnston 0.2IP, 1H, 2ER, BB; Suddreth 1IP, 1H 1BB.
Hitting
Bells — Stowers 2-3, RBI, BB; Pinorini 1-4, R; Shenton 0-3, R, BB; McClary 1-2.
Lefties — Pauwells 3-4, R, RBI; Tengan 1-3, R; Kaleiwahea 1-4, 2B, RBI; Roby 0-2, RBI, 2BB.
