Bend, Ore. – The Bend Elks became the 2015 West Coast League Champs last night at Vince Genna Stadium by beating the Kelowna Falcons 10-4. The Elks take the best of 3 series sweeping the Falcons 2-0. This is the first WCL championship for Bend.
The Falcons took the lead early in the 1st off Bend starter Riley Newman by collecting hits from the first 3 falcons to come to the plate. Kelowna scored another run in the 3rd and led the Elks 2-0 going into the bottom of inning 3. With one out in the bottom of the 3rd, J.D. Larimer, Dalton Herd and Derek Chapman all singled to load the bases. Billy King then comes to the plate and blasts a monster grand slam home run over the scoreboard in right field to put the Elks ahead 4-2 after 3 innings.
After a scoreless top of the 4th for Kelowna, the Elks send up batters 10 times in the bottom of the 4th, highlighted by 2 RBI doubles from both Billy King and Patrick Flynn, and Bend takes a 10-2 lead. That was all the runs required by Bend as Elks pitching allowed only 2 more runs to Kelowna, one in the 5th and a final run in the 7th.
Bend reliever Harrison Pyatt came in the 5th with 2 on and no outs and struck out the first Falcon he faced before coxing a inning ending ending 3-6-3 double play. Pyatt faced 14 Falcons during his performance, striking out 5 and walking 4. Pyatt gave up 2 hits and an earned run. Kelowns scores the final run of the 2015 WCL season in the 7th after Kelowna’s Ben Gamba comes to the plate walks, followed by a wild pitch and a past ball putting him on 3rd, he is then is driven in by a RBI fielders choice.
Mac Gaul come in to relieve Pyatt the 8th with 1 out and strikes out 2 of the 3 falcons he battled to end the inning. In the 9th Kelowna gets a man on with 1 out before Daniel Bies comes onto the mound for Bend and gets pinch hitter Josh Egan to groundout before striking out the Kyle Plantier to end the game and the 2015 WCL season. Bend starter Riley Newman got the win and Kelowna starter Kendel Motes takes the loss.
The Elks swept both WCL playoffs series scoring 43 runs in 4 games and winning four straight, 2 from Corvallis and 2 from Kelowna to capture the team’s first West Coast League title. Bend recorded the best record in the league going 35-16 and lead the league in nearly every team offensive category.
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