For the fifth time this season the Falcons have fed off Kamloops NorthPaws pitching and blasted them 11-1 on Tuesday night to open a three-game home-and-home series.

The offence struck early and often at Elks Stadium, putting up nine of the 11 runs in the first three innings.  Nolan Eberwein led off the Falcons bats with a double, then moved to third on a ground out.  Rees Kozar lifted a flyball into leftfield to score Eberwein with a sacrifice fly to open the scoring.

In the second frame the Falcons blew open the game with five runs.  After both Justin Tucker and Finley Buckner reached to lead off the inning, Ashton Graff-Rowe singled to score the runners.  Graff-Rowe advanced to second when Jacob Loving walked before a critical play occurred.  Kozar reached base courtesy of an error charged to the third baseman allowing both runners to come into score unearned runs with two-out. Kozar moved all the way to third base, setting the table for Xander Sielken to single him home.

The NorthPaws got a run back in the top of third inning off starter Chase Gordon who was excellent in the ballgame.  He threw six complete innings allowing just the one run on two hits and fanned four, recording the victory.

That run the visitors scored must have struck a chord with the Falcons offence because they added three more runs in the bottom of the inning.  Graff-Rowe knocked in Tucker who led off the inning with a single then promptly stole second.  Later in the frame the Falcons loaded the bases with two-out, before Kozar was at it again. He collected another single driving in two runs, giving him five in the first three innings.

From there the pitching staff dominated the pace of play.  After Gordon left, Ryan Pineo, Andrew Sanchez and Matthew Prieto took over allowing just one hit and combined to strikeout four in the win.

The offence added two more runs in the seventh when Loving knocked in Graff-Rowe on a ground out before Eberwein scored on a wild pitch with two out.  Seven different batters recorded a hit and Graff-Rowe and Eberwein each collected two of them.

The win is the team’s 20^th on the campaign and remain two games behind the Wenatchee Applesox for first place in the North Division.  Wednesday the Falcons (20-11) head to Kamloops for a rematch with the NorthPaws (12-19) at 6:35pm.  Wildfires have been causing air quality issues in Kamloops so the West Coast League will monitor the situation and decide on Wednesday if the game can continue.

Photo courtesy of Tami Quan Photography