Solid offence, good pitching and taking advantage of a sloppy defence was the recipe for success for the Falcons on Tuesday night beating the visiting Kamloops NorthPaws 11-6.

The hometown Falcons got on the board in the bottom of the first inning, setting the tone early.   With two-out in the inning, Druw Frost singled then advanced to second after Jacob Embleton walked.  The next batter was Justin Tucker (pictured) who smashed a 0-2 count for an RBI double to bring home Frost for the game’s first run.

In the bottom of the second inning, the Falcons struck again off the NorthPaws starting pitcher Zeke Hirsh. After Ashton Graff-Rowe singled, he moved to third base when Owen Rodgers also singled.  With runners at the corners, Nolan Eberwein grounded out to short, allowing Graff-Rowe to score.

Starting pitcher Max Biddle found his grove and was terrific through five innings, not allowing a run while scattering four hits and struck out three.  He left the game with a lead and recorded the win.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Falcons’ offence blew the game wide open with a six-run frame taking advantage of three NorthPaw errors.  Jacob Loving doubled to lead off the inning then advanced to third base on an error.  Frost then reached on an error allowing Loving to score an unearned run.  Embleton was next and he walked just before Tucker collected an RBI single to score Frost.  Xander Sielken reached base next courtesy of a fielder’s choice, however there was a throwing error on the play allowing Embleton to come all the way around to score another unearned run.   Two batters later Sielken stole second and Graff-Rowe was hit by a pitch.  On the next offering, Rodgers smashed a two-run single before he also scored on an Eberwein base hit.  The Falcons scored six runs on four hits and the defence committed three errors.

To their credit, the NorthPaws bounced back in the next half inning with a pair of runs to finally get on the board.

However, the Falcons got those runs right back.  In the home half of the seventh. Rodgers continued his hot game with an RBI double to score Rees Kozar who singled earlier in the frame.  Then two more scored in the eighth.  Embleton scored on a passed ball before Kaden Prosofsky came across with the 11^th run, this one on a wild pitch.   The Falcons scored twice in the inning on just one hit.

For the second consecutive game the Falcons bullpen gave up multiple runs in the last inning as the NorthPaws scored four times in the top of the ninth to make the score a bit more respectable.

Offensively the Falcons pounded out another 12 hits on Tuesday night with Rodgers collecting three of them, had three RBIs and scored a run.  Tucker and Graff-Rowe also had a multi-hit game as the Falcons recorded the 15^th win of the campaign.

The teams will lock up again on Wednesday afternoon in Kamloops for a Canada Day matinee at 12:05pm.  They will then return to Kelowna on Thursday night for the series finale at 6:35pm at Elks Stadium.

Photo courtesy of Tami Quan Photography