Pippins Break WCL Record in 11-8 Win
August 5, 2014 - West Coast League (WCL)
Yakima Valley Pippins News Release
YAKIMA, Wash. - As an exciting first season of Pippins baseball took another exciting step forward Monday night, as the Pippins knocked off the Cowlitz Black Bears by a score of 11-8, becoming the winningest expansion team in its first year in West Coast League history.
The Pippins (31-18) jumped all over Cowlitz early on. Yakima Valley scored twice in the bottom of the 1 st against Cowlitz starter Jake Menzhuber. Vince Fernandez retook the league lead in RBI (43) on a sacrifice fly in the opening frame.
Yakima Valley unloaded on Menzhuber and the Black Bears in the bottom of the 3 rd, scoring eight times against Menzhuber and reliever Henry Omana to build a 10-0 advantage. Alex Guenette struck first with a three-run triple, before his teammates added scattered RBI singles behind him to build the large lead.
Cowlitz (22-27), however, slowly got back in the game against starter Eli Morgan in the 5 th, scoring four times to make it 10-4, before adding another run in the 6 th off reliever Beau Kerns to cut the deficit to 10-5.
Kyle Thomson gave the Pippins a little more breathing room in the 7 th, launching his first home run of the season to make it 11-5.
Cowlitz scored twice in the 8 th against reliever Nick Suniga and got a two-out home run for Chris Iriart in the 9 th against Connor Lau to make it 11-8, but Lau struck out Seaver Whalen to end the ball game and get the Pippins their eighth straight win.
With the win, Eli Morgan also tied Jackson Lockwood (Corvallis) for not only the most wins in the WCL this season (8), but also tied for the most victories by an individual pitcher in a WCL season. Game two of the three-game series will take place Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m.
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