Magrisi Dominates as Pippins Beat Wenatchee on Opening Night

YAKIMA, Wash. – Joe Magrisi tossed 5 dominant innings, and the Yakima Valley Pippins used a 2-run 5th inning to lead the way to a 4-1 victory over the Wenatchee AppleSox on Opening Night at Yakima County Stadium on Friday.

Magrisi, making his first start of the summer, was not fazed by the large home crowd on Opening Night. He allowed just 1 hit over 5 scoreless innings for the Pippins (3-1), while striking out 7 and not walking a  batter. He threw 48 of his 74 pitches for strikes, a 64.8% mark.

The Pippins jumped on Wenatchee (1-3) starter Gavin Gorrell early, when newcomer Christian Padilla singled into right field in his first Pippins at-bat. A batter later, Zach Lew drove him home with a single up the middle to give the Pippins a 1-0 lead. They would not trail at any point during the contest.

The Pippins added two more runs in the fifth inning off of Gorrell, which started with a Padilla double to right-center field, and was followed by a Zach Lew fielder’s choice and Daniel Cipriano RBI single. Three batters later, Owen Cobb drove in Lew to make it a 3-0 Pippins lead. Cobb collected 3 hits to up his early season batting average to .538.

Ty Pohlmann pitched 3.1 strong innings of relief after Magrisi exited in the 6th inning. Pohlmann allowed 1 run on a sacrifice fly from Tyler Detloff of the AppleSox in the 6th inning, but did not allow any further damage. After walking a batter in the 9th inning, Pohlmann was replaced by Ayden Adams, making his Pippins debut. Adams got a groundout and a strikeout to earn the save.

Padilla, Lew, Cipriano, and Cobb collected all 9 of the Pippins’ hits, with Cobb leading the way with his three base knocks (all singles). No Wenatchee batter collected multiple hits, but Brett Gillis tripled and scored as part of a 1-for-3 day.

The series continues on Saturday with game 2 set for a 6:35 PM PT start time. Cameron Liss is set to make his Pippins debut as the starting pitcher, while Trent Sellers will oppose him for Wenatchee. Live coverage begins at pippinsbaseball.com/live at 6:20 PM.

By Miles Klotz

June 8, 2019