Ninth inning collapse costs Bulls in loss to Bombers

By Lethbridge Herald on July 1, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Bulls Nick Gravel belts a double into left field against the Brooks Bombers on Friday afternoon at Spitz Stadium.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

In front of a solid afternoon crowd at Spitz Stadium on Canada Day, the Lethbridge Bulls saw a ninth inning 4-2 lead slip away on route to an 8-4 loss in 10 innings to the Brooks Bombers in the day game of the Canada Day doubleheader on Friday.

“Yeah, it is what is,” said head coach Chance Wheatley.

“The back of our bullpen has been good all year and you know it happens. I’ll just move on and we got the second game coming up right away, so we’ll get ready for that.”

Wheatley thought they stranded too many base runners in the game.

“We were on the sticks all day but just couldn’t cash the runners in,” said Wheatley.

 It was the Bombers who got on the board first as Nick Parsons hit into a 6-3 ground out to score Denver Blinn from third.

The Bulls would tie the game in the bottom of the second as Hunter Porter hit a single to cash in Carter Claerhout.

Lethbridge pulled ahead in the third inning as newcomer Brandon Nicoll hit a single to score Nick Gravel from third with two outs.

Fast forward to the fifth as Claerhout hit a single to score Kalem Haney from third.

In the sixth inning, Haney hit a single to drive in Ty Wevers to make the game 4-1 for the home side.

Brooks would cut the lead in half in the top of the eight as Jonah Weisner hit a double passed a diving Noah Rodriguez to score Drew Mackie.

The Bombers would make it a one run game in the ninth as Mackie hit a single to score Matt Wolff with two outs.

Brooks’ Jimmy Costin would hit a double to score Mackie from first base and tie the game.

It was Blinn who hit a double in the top of the 10th to score Costin and Ryan Nagelbach.

Kiel Brenczewski hit a sacrifice fly to score Weisner before Wolff came up and hit a single to cash in Blinn for the final run of the game.

The WCBL goes with international base rules where teams will start with two men on base in extra innings.

Look for the Friday night result online on Saturday.

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