The Bellingham Bells’ season ended after falling to the Victoria HarbourCats 7-6 in the North Division Championship in Victoria, British Columbia, on Saturday, Aug. 12 — just one game short of the West Coast League title game.
Bellingham and Victoria each made it to the game by sweeping their first-round opponents. The Bells defeated the Kelowna Falcons and the HarbourCats took down the Wenatchee AppleSox.
The Bells jumped out to an early lead Saturday after Andrew Valdez hit a three-run homer in the first inning to score Coleman Schmidt and Dean West, who both opened the game with a pair of singles.
HarbourCats’ right-handed pitcher Logan MacNiel continued to struggle to start the second inning, walking the first two Bells’ batters, Riley Parker and Brady Reynolds, then giving up another single to Schmidt before being pulled with the bases loaded and zero outs.
Left-handed pitcher Jake Finkelstein replaced MacNiel, and allowed both West and Valdez to score and give Bellingham a 5-0 lead.
Victoria responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the second inning via two walks and an error to pull within 5-2.
After the HarbourCats plated two more runs in the fourth inning to make it 5-4, Bells head coach Jim Clem pulled Yaeger for righty Hunter Long with one out.
Long was quickly replaced by righty Trevor Moore after giving up an additional run, and Victoria tied the game at 5-5. Moore closed the inning, but not before the HarbourCats scored two more runs to take a 7-5 lead going into the fifth inning, marking seven unanswered runs for Victoria.
Finkelstein was replaced in the seventh after a five-inning stretch but left the game with one out and the bases loaded for right-handed pitcher Josh Berenbaum, who was able to collect two more outs and end the inning.
Things got a little interesting when West scored in the top of the ninth on a wild pitch to pull the Bells within one at 7-6, but Bellingham would find no more offense as righty Brett Harvey shut the door to seal the victory for Victoria.
The HarbourCats will look to dethrone the Corvallis Knights on the road Monday, Aug. 14, for the WCL championship. The Knights have won the league title six years in a row. Corvallis defeated Bellingham in last year’s championship game.
The Bells end their season with a 35-19 overall record.
