KAMLOOPS, B.C. — Nanaimo, be proud of your blue-collar NightOwls.
A hard-work effort brought a hard-work style win on Saturday in Kamloops, where the NightOwls were full marks for an 11-8 win over the host NorthPaws. A dozen hits, no errors, and scored in bunches to be in position to win the series with a victory on Sunday, a noon road start at Norbrock Stadium.
The NightOwls will not let their playoff chances fade away — this team battles. Nanaimo is 7-9 in the second half and 19-24 overall, with wins over Kamloops a must to keep that late drive alive.
What a third inning — the NightOwls plated seven runs, only to have Kamloops reply with six in the bottom half. Nanaimo added singles in the fourth and sixth innings, and put some insurance on the board with two runs in the ninth — that should have been more, but an apparent home run by catcher Brock Wirthgen was ruled a foul ball.
It was by far the roughest outing of the season for NightOwls starter Teague Van Dyke, who had been nearly unhittable until that third inning. He finished with seven hits allowed, six earned runs against, and three strikeouts. Moosa Nonomiya went three innings with just one run, from three hits and two walks allowed. Vinny Bruno went two innings, surrendering a solo home run, while Cole Carmichael got the save with a hitless ninth inning.
The lineup produced a lot of base runners. Wirthgen had three runs driven in to pace the offence, with Spencer Sullivan and Jacob Hayes both having two hits, Hayes walking three times on top of it for a total of five times reaching base. Shortstop Andrew Nykoluk was 3-5 with two runs, while Ryder Florence scored three times. Owen Wessel had two runs driven in.
The team will venture home on Sunday after the noon start, then on Tuesday head to Edmonton to face the Riverhawks for games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
There are just three more regular season home games for the NightOwls in 2025, a weekend series against Kamloops that starts a week from Friday (August 1-2-3), with the Friday and Saturday games at 6:35pm and the Sunday capper at 1pm. The NightOwls complete their fourth WCL regular season with a road series in Bellingham, August 4-5-6.
