PORT ANGELES — Pitching and some well-timed power hitting pushed Port Angeles past the Nanaimo NightOwls 9-1 in the Lefties’ return to Civic Field on Tuesday night.
It was Port Angeles’ fourth straight win after a three-game sweep of the Kamlooops Northpaws on the road in British Columbia over the weekend.
Dom Pieto set the tone early in his start for Port Angeles on the mound. He worked around a one-out double in the first and only allowed one other hit between that point and the sixth inning.
Pieto earned the win after going six shutout innings, allowing five hits and one walk with eight strikeouts.
The Lefties’ bats touched up Nanaimo starting pitcher Nathan Buchan along with reliever Nick Fenner for eight runs.
Port Angeles scored twice in the second, four in the third and added two more in the fourth.
Kam Koester was 2-for-4 with a towering two-run homer to left field to key the rally in the fourth, and he also added a double.
Roberto Nunez — the West Coast League leader in hits and RBIs coming into Tuesday’s contest — laced a two-run single to center in the four-run third inning.
Nunez, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound second baseman and a sophomore at the Arizona campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, is leading the Lefties in batting average (.433), hits (26) home runs (2) and RBIs (19) this season.
The Lefties improved to 6-10. The Nightowls fell to 6-9.
The two teams meet tonight at 6:35 p.m. in the series finale before Kelowna comes to town for a three-game set through Sunday.
Bomb belt for dingers
Celebrations have taken a turn toward the silly at pretty much every level of baseball.
In the big leagues, Seattle’s home run swingers receive a 6-foot-tall, 30-pound trident after leaving the ballpark in a tradition started in April. The Oakland Athletics trotted out Thor’s Hammer for a three-home-run night by Jordan Diaz; Washington, in a nod toward the presidential past, decided to use an old-fashioned white wig, and the Minnesota Twins have used a fishing vest and a kids’ fishing pole in reference to the “land of 10,000 rakes.”
Every team has one. The Angels switched to a kabuto, a $2,500 Japanese samurai helmet, to celebrate star Shohei Ohtani’s World Baseball Classic win this spring.
Home runs are fun and the Lefties have taken note of the use of props in long-ball celebrations — as the team bestows the “Next Door Gastropub Bomb Belt,” a WWE-style wrestling championship belt on its home-run hitters.
A less enjoyable observation occurs when players break their wooden bats — the “Bourbon West Broken Bat Bone Yard.”
Let’s hope for more of the Bomb Belt than the chain. Those wood bats aren’t cheap.
Port Angeles 9, Nanaimo 1
NightOwls 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 — 1 7 1
Lefties 0 2 4 2 0 0 0 0 1 X — 9 12 0
WP: Pieto LP: Buchan
Pitching
Nanaimo — Buchan 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, ER, 2 BB, 2 K; Fenner 2 IP, 5 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 2 K; Mattix IP, K; Veniard IP, BB, K; Fleury IP, H; Paulino IP, 3 H, ER.
Port Angeles — Pieto 6 IP, 5 H, BB, 8 K; Acker IP; Holpuck IP, 2 H, ER, 3 BB; Lewis IP.
Hitting
Nanaimo — Waters 2-4, 2B; Nicoll 2-4.
Port Angeles — Koester 2-4, 2B, HR, SB, 3 R, 2 RBI; Nunez 1-4, BB, 3 RBI; Jackson 1-5, R, RBI; Schuchart 2-3, R, 2 RBI; Choi 1-4,SB, RBI; Rose 1-3, R; Adams 2-3, BB, 2 R, RBI.
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Sports reporter/columnist Michael Carman can be contacted at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
Lefties designated hitter Barrett Rose dives to the bag as Nanaimo first baseman Tim Holyk tries for the pickoff on Tuesday evening at Port Angeles Civic Field. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Lefties pitcher Dom Pieto throws in the first inning against the Nanaimo NightOwls on Tuesday at Port Angeles Civic Field. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Lefties center fielder Kam Koester takes aim high popup in the fourth inning against Nanaimo on Tuesday at Civic Field. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
