BELLINGHAM, Wash. — The Nanaimo NightOwls will always battle, that’s been proven in this 2024 West Coast League season.
A night after a rough start to a four-game road trip with a score that shall hereby go unmentioned — hey, it happens — the NightOwls used strong pitching and a clutch home run from Wylie Waters to earn a 6-4 win over the Bellingham Bells at Joe Martin Field.
The Waters bomb was his league-leading seventh home run, and the two-run blast turned a 3-3 tie into a Nanaimo lead. Waters, who will play in the WCL all-star game, was 2-3 with two runs and two driven in and is now batting .330. David Draayers had a single later in the inning to score Mitchell Middlemiss, who had doubled two batters after the Waters blast to right that scored Michael Easter.
Waters also leads the WCL in RBIs with 30.
Josh Torres started on the mound and went three innings, giving up six hits and three runs, both walking and striking out a pair. Payton Robertson was money in relief with three scoreless innings, and Issac Araiza made his NightOwls debut with a scoreless inning, earning the win. Richtter Castillo surrendered a run in the eighth but Ryan Inouye came on and struck out three batters in the four outs he recorded for his second save of the season.
Nevan Noonan was 2-4, as were Middlemiss and Draayers. Draayers had two runs batted in. Nanaimo scored two in the first, fell behind 3-2 after two innings, then tied the game in the top of the fourth.
The NightOwls were outhit 13-10 and made the game’s only error. In the standings, the NightOwls are 4-3 in the second half and share the second-half-lead with the Wenatchee AppleSox, with all eight North Division teams within 1.5 games of each other.
The NightOwls close out this series in Bellingham on Sunday with a 1:35pm start, then head to Port Angeles on Monday to face the Lefties in a one-game stop. The next home games at Serauxmen Stadium are Tuesday and Thursday, with an all-local affair pitting the NightOwls against the Nanaimo Caged Athletics Selects, a team gathered for exhibition games using current and former college players from the mid-island area.
