Friday night the Falcons offence exploded on the road in Bend, Oregon, blasting the Elks 16-3 in the series opener.

The visitors scored early and often and rode a pair of homeruns from CJ Griggs and another from Matthew Pena for the lopsided win outhitting the Elks 17-8.

The hit parade started early when Nolan Eberwein led off the game with a single, then stole second getting into scoring position for Pena. Turns out it didn’t matter where Eberwein was standing because Pena blasted his league leading sixth homer of the season to get the Falcons on the board.

In the next inning the Falcons continued to pour it on, scoring three times. After Druw Frost reached on an error and Xander Sielken walked, Eberwein belted a double to score both runners. The next batter was Jacob Embleton who then drove in Eberwein with an RBI single up the middle.

Their next at bats was the third and the offence continued to feed off Elks’ pitching. Griggs led off the inning with a solo homerun to score the first of five runs in the frame. Rees Kozar then walked and stole second before moving to third on a Frost single. With runners at the corners, Sielken knocked in Kozar with a single. Cade Burnham was next and he also singled to score Frost. After a pitching change both Eberwein and Embleton collected back-to-back RBI hits as the team batted around, scoring five times.

Despite being up by 10 runs heading into the fourth inning the offence didn’t let up. After back-to-back walks, Burnham made the Elks pay with an RBI double to score Frost and moved Sielken over to third. Jacob Loving batted next and drove in Sielken with a ground out.

The Elks got one run back in the bottom of the fourth, but the Falcons got that back and more two innings later. Kozar would double to lead off the sixth then scored on an Sielken RBI single. Then in the seventh inning the Falcons loaded the bases for Kozar who drew a walk to force home Eberwein who also walked to lead off the inning.

In the ninth, Griggs scorched his second homer of the game, this was a two-run shot to score Finley Buckner ahead of him to cap off the scoring.

It was the Falcons highest offensive output of the season and got production from up and down the lineup. Eberwein and Griggs each had three hits a piece and drove in three runs and six batters in total had a multi-hit game. Eberwein reached base all four times and scored four runs.

With an enormous lead the Falcons pitchers were aggressive in the strike zone as four of them combined for eight strikeouts. Maddon McArthur recorded the win out of the bullpen throwing two innings. Starter Jordan Green did a great job early pitching with the lead, throwing four innings, allowing an unearned run and striking out two.

The Falcons (8-8) are back at the 500 mark and meet the Elks (6-10) again on Saturday night for game two at 6:35pm. Fans can watch the stream of the Elks YouTube channel.

Photo courtesy of Kelsie Hirko