The Bellingham Bells beat the Ridgefield Raptors, 8-1, Wednesday night at Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex in the second of their three-game series to clinch the series victory. 

The Bells found themselves down 1-0 after the first, but bounced back to score eight unanswered runs, highlighted by two, two-run homeruns from Cole Hinkelman, to support a stellar effort by the staff for the win. 

Ridgefield scored its lone run in the first inning when Michael Hicks doubled in Justin Boyd, but that would be all they could muster as Bells’ starter C.J. Varela locked things down after that. 

His team tied things up in the second on a Christian Dicochea RBI doubled to score Jordan Vujovich before taking the lead for good in the fifth. 

Tied 1-1, Collin Burns and Jack Machtolfled off the inning with back to back singles before Guthrie Morrison doubled in Burns to go up 2-1. 

Varela then blanked the Raptors in the bottom of the inning to finish his day in line for the win having allowed one run on five hits. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out four. 

The Bells then added insurance runs in the sixth, first on a two-run blast from Hinkelman, his first West Coast league bomb as a Bell. Ahead 4-1, Ethan Smith scored Dicochea with a sacrifice-fly later in the inning to go up 5-1. 

The Bells tacked on three more in the eighth on a Vujovich RBI single to score Morrison, and then on another two-run from Hinkelman to make it 8-1. 

John Kelly and Cole Galvagno combined to shut out the Raptors for the remainder of play, securing Varela his first win of the summer. 

The teams will meet for the series finale at 6:35 p.m. on Thursday at Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex.