Black Bears Back Home
The Black Bears welcome in Kamloops for the home opener in 2022.
Coming off the heels of a come from behind series clinching victory Sunday afternoon in Springfield, the Cowlitz Black Bears return home to David Story Field for the opening home series of the 2022 season against the Kamloops Northpaws.
Cowlitz took their first West Coast League series of the year winning in dramatic fashion Sunday afternoon at the Hamlin Sports Complex in game two of a doubleheader against the Springfield Drifters.
The Black Bears (2-1) took game number one of the three game set Friday night winning, 11-6, before Saturday’s game was rained out in Springfield, resulting in the two teams playing two seven-inning games Sunday afternoon.
Springfield snuck past Cowlitz in game number one on Sunday, 4-2, setting up a rubber game between the two clubs.
Springfield jumped out to an early 3-0 lead, but Cowlitz came clawing back. The Black Bears were able to push two across in the third, and one in the fourth, tying it up, 3-3, heading to the fifth.
The Drifters regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI groundout that brought in a run, but Cowlitz wasted no time.
In the top of the sixth, John Oleson, who finished the weekend 11-12 at the plate, laced a single into left center, bringing home two Black Bears to give Cowlitz the lead, 5-4.
The Drifters tacked on three in the bottom frame, but the Black Bears responded in a huge way, loading the bases with no outs, and capitalized, pushing across three in the top of the seventh en route to a come from behind victory, 8-7, taking the inaugural series in Springfield.
The Black Bears now turn their attention to the Kamloops Northpaws (4-1) who are one of the newest teams in the West Coast League. This marks Cowlitz’s second straight series against a new franchise to the league.
The Northpaws started off their season with a three-game sweep of Edmonton at home in Kamloops, before traveling to Port Angeles for a three-game set, taking two out of three games.
Monday is the home opener at Story Field for the 2022 season with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online or at the gate and all home games this summer will be streamed online under the ‘Watch Live Online’ tab on cowlitzblackbears.com.
This Tuesday is also the first “Three Dollar Tuesday”, where tickets, domestic beer, hot dogs and nachos are all three dollars.
On Wednesday, show your Fibre Credit Union Card at the gate at Story Field when purchasing your tickets and get five dollars off your purchase.
And finishing out the homestand, we’ll have the kids Dash for Cash night presented by Twin City Bank! Kids 12 and under will get the opportunity to go on the field and pick us some cash!
It should be a fun week at Story Field, and we hope you join us for the Bears of Summer return to Longview!