SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — The Sweets never trailed in their series finale against the Springfield Drifters as Walla Walla got the 8-4 win Sunday afternoon. The win gives the Sweets the series, which is their second consecutive series win in a row.

Walla Walla got most of their runs in the first three innings. In the opening frame, Stevie Hom and Kolby Felix both got on with two outs on the board to extend the inning. Joey Winters then brought them both home with a triple deep to center field, giving the Sweets a 2-0 lead. For Winters, it was his first triple of the season with the Sweets.

After Springfield got a run back in the bottom of the first, Walla Walla added three more in the third. Felix got the rally started with a one-out triple, the second three-bagger of the day for the Sweets. Sunday was the third game this season with multiple triples for the Sweets, and the first since June 28 against the Kamloops NorthPaws. Walla Walla leads the West Coast League with 18 triples on the year. Winters again brought him home, this time with a sacrifice fly. At three RBI, it was a season-high for Winters,

The inning wasn’t done for the Sweets though. JJ Moran got aboard with a two-out double. Hayden Driggs then stepped up and hit his second home run in as many games played this series. The two-run blast put the Sweets up 5-1. Driggs has the second most homers on the team now and is the first Sweet this season to hit multiple dingers in the same series.

In the bottom half of the innings, starter Liam Hohenstein was shutting down the Springfield Drifters. After giving up the run in the bottom of the first, Hohenstien tossed four scoreless innings. He finished the game with 5.1 innings pitched and just one run allowed off five hits, one walk and five strikeouts.

Walla Walla scored their final three runs in the sixth. Driggs got his second run of the game off some heads up base running. Standing on first, he advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Brandon Faire, who started his first WCL game for the Sweets. The bunt was fielded by the Springfield third baseman, leaving the bag wide open, so Driggs kept going past second and into third. Springfield tried to get the ball over their to try and tag him out, but over threw the ball, allowing Driggs to race home on the error.

Mason Millar got a single right after that and was brought home off an RBI double from Logan Meyer. Meyer was brought home for the final run off another RBI double, this time from Hom.

Springfield scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to make the score 8-4.

The Drifters threatened to make the game interesting, but reliever Luke Stutesman closed it down with a three inning save. Only two batters got aboard against Stutesman and were left stranded. It was the first save of the season for Stutesman.

The win give the Sweets their fourth series win of the season and second in a row. Walla Walla is now 6-13 in the second half and 15-30 overall. Walla Walla is five wins away from tying their mark last season in the first year under head coach Jarrod Molnaa. With nine games remaining, Walla Walla needs to go 5-4 to match last season and 6-3 to do one game better.

The Sweets stay on the road for the next three games as they are halfway through their second six-game road trip of the season. Walla Walla travels to Corvallis Monday for their second series with the Knights. The Sweets took the first series, winning the final two games to get a series win right before the all-star break.

First pitch is set for 6:35 and Sweets’ coverage can be found on Mixlr.com.