Errors Cost AppleSox on Wednesday Night

WENATCHEE, WA - Defensive mistakes were the AppleSox’ Achilles’ Heel in an 8-3 loss to the Victoria HarbourCats on Wednesday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.

The Sox committed five errors, three of which came in the first inning. Three different AppleSox batters had two-hit nights and Sam Wyatt didn’t allow any earned runs in 5.1 shutdown innings of relief, but it wasn’t enough.

Victoria sent eight batters to the plate and scored four runs against Sox starter James Kulak. The HarbourCats scored another thanks in part to the AppleSox’ fourth error of the night. Despite scoring five runs through three innings, Victoria had only collected two hits to that point.

In the bottom of the third inning, the Sox scored their first run of the game. Trent Sellers and Quinn Ayers led off with singles and the back-to-back groundouts scored Sellers.

Neither team scored for the next three-and-a-half innings, but the AppleSox cut the deficit to three runs. Again, the inning began with consecutive singles as Kody Darcy and Sellers reached base to open the inning. Grant Gorrell hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring in a run and make it 5-2, HarbourCats.

The Sox added their final run in the eighth following two Victoria runs in the top of the inning. Ryan Altenberger led off with a double but then scored two batters later on an RBI single by Cole McKenzie. The HarbourCats capped the scoring with a run in the ninth on a couple of base hits and a sacrifice fly.

The rubber match of the series is on Wednesday at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium. First pitch is at 6:35 p.m.