PORTLAND, OR (MyBellinghamNow.com) – The Bellingham Bells survived a late rally by the Portland Pickles to secure a 2-1 win in the West Coast League Championship on Thursday, Aug. 14.
The Bells’ pitching came through in their toughest test of the season, holding the WCL’s most powerful offense to just a single run at Walker Stadium in Portland. 3rd-year Bell Nate Kirkpatrick added a solo home run to get their first run of the game.
“We had a couple heartbreakers the last couple years, but this group had a little something different about them,” Kirkpatrick said. “No matter what adversity we faced, we just didn’t really care.”
Bells coach Ed Knaggs delivered in his first year as skipper in Bellingham, leading the team to through a tightly-contested playoff run that featured four games of their five games which were decided by a single run.
“This is tough, playoffs are tough,” Knaggs said. “Obviously our pitching is phenomenal, to hold these guys to one run … just really excited the guys get to cap off a great summer with a championship, that doesn’t really happen very often. They’ll have that forever.”
Both teams were held scoreless until the fourth inning, when Kirkpatrick hammered his solo homer to left field. Rominic Quiban followed with a two-out single and stole second, but was left stranded, leaving the Bells with a 1-0 lead.
Stanford junior Trevor Moore gave the Bells a stellar outing, throwing five innings of no-hit ball with eight strikeouts in the start. Caleb Cassie took over in the sixth inning and walked a pair of batters to put two on with two out. Pickles slugger Josh Schleichardt, who set a WCL record for home runs this season, gave the Bells a scare when he lifted a deep fly to the left field warning track, but it landed safely into the glove of Andrew Lamb to end the inning.
The Pickles managed their first hit in the bottom of the seventh inning when Braydon Wooldridge just beat out the tag on an infield single, but they couldn’t do much else and stayed scoreless going into the eighth.
Bellingham extended its lead in the eighth inning when Aidan Aguayo slapped a double to left field, then advanced to third on a wild pitch to Lamb. Lamb went on to get hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners for Noah Cassie, who followed with a hard ground that scored Aguayo from third, putting the Bells up 2-0.
Carter Herrera took the mound for the Bells in the eighth and went 1-2-3 through the Pickles’ lineup thanks to a slick play by Kirkpatrick at third base. Quiban drove a hard double down the third base foul line early in the top of the ninth, but Portland struck their next two batters out to hold the Bells’ lead at two heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Colt Peterson closed the game for Bellingham and hit a Pickles batter with the first pitch he threw. Portland followed with a pair of singles that scored their first run of the game and close the Bells’ lead to one. But Peterson got a clutch strikeout to end the game and deliver the Bells their first title in over a decade.
The Bells finish the 2025 season with a 37-22 record in Coach Knaggs’ first year with the team. Bells general manager Stephanie Morrell confirmed that he’ll be back as skipper in 2026.
