Despite a leadoff homerun in Nanaimo and outhitting the NightOwls on Thursday night the Falcons would fall 9-6 in the series finale.

Justin Tucker led the game off with a solo homer, his first of the season, to give the visiting Falcons the lead.  The next batter Matthew Pena nearly made it back-to-back homeruns hitting a ground rule double and eventually scored on a CJ Griggs RBI single.

In the bottom of the inning the NightOwls cut the lead in half off Falcons’ starter Matthew Prieto who struggled with his control early and was removed after facing five batters, recording just one out.

The Falcons offence came alive again in the top of the third with a pair of RBI doubles.  After Ashton Graff-Rowe (pictured) singled, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch to lead off the inning, Jacob Embleton doubled to drive him in.  He promptly stole third, then scored on an Owen Rodgers double to give the visitors a three-run lead.

After pitching a shutout second inning coming out of the bullpen, Jordan Green came back out to the mound with a three-run lead in the bottom of the third inning and struggled.  The NightOwls would bat around in the inning, scoring four times on five hits and took the lead for good.

They added another run in the fourth courtesy of a solo homerun off reliever Keller Bloodworth.

In the top of the fifth the Falcons clawed back when Griggs manufactured a run.  He was hit by a pitch, advanced to second when Embleton walked behind him, moved to third on a flyout, then scored on a balk.

The NightOwls recorded three more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on the strength of a three-run homerun, their second dinger of the night.

In the top of the eighth, the Falcons loaded the bases with one-out and could only push across one run.  Once again Griggs had his fingerprints all over this run when he collected an RBI single to rightfield to bring home Boogie McNeal.   He finished with two hits, two RBIs and a run scored.   Both Embleton and Rodgers also had two hits each.

Offensively the Falcons outhit the NightOwls 10-9 but struggled with control on the mound using five pitchers. On the defensive side of things, they committed two errors leading to a pair of unearned runs, which factored in the setback.

The Falcons (1-5) leave Nanaimo without a win and head south to open a three-game weekend set with the Victoria Harbourcats (3-3) beginning on Friday night.   The club returns home on Tuesday to welcome the Walla Walla Sweets to Elks Stadium.