Pippins Drop Finale to AppleSox

After picking up their first road win since early June on Tuesday, the Pippins offense couldn’t stay hot as they dropped the final game of the series to the Wenatchee AppleSox, 5-2.

For the second time in three games, the AppleSox got out to an early lead. The first three batters in the bottom of the first reached off of Connor White, including an RBI single by Johnny Sage. Connor McCord followed with a pop up in foul ground down the third base line. Jake Moberg made the catch but the runner at third broke for home when no one was covering home plate. Jacob Prater would score on what is one of the shortest sacrifice flies you will see.

The Pippins would answer in the second with some help from the AppleSox defense. Cole Pofek lead off the inning with a groundball to second that Prater couldn’t handle. Pofek would then steal second and reach third on a wild pitch. With one out and Pofek at third, Moberg hit a groundball to short, scoring Pofek and pulling the Pippins within one.

In the third, the Pippins would pull even. AppleSox starter Hunter Boyd started the inning with back to back walks. With Elijah Greene up, Tyler Hollow would get picked off at second. Two pitches later, Greene would line a triple to the right field wall, scoring Robert Ball from first base. The Pippins would strand Greene at third base.

The game would remain tied until the fifth. With two outs, the AppleSox would put runners at the corners, chasing White after four and two thirds innings. With Hunter French pitching to his first batter, the runner from first broke for second, drawing a throw from Ball and creating a rundown. The third base runner then broke for home and scored to give the AppleSox a 3-2 lead. Sage would escape the rundown when no one covered the first base bag. French would limit the damage to just the one run.

The Pippins and AppleSox traded zeros until the bottom of the eighth when Wenatchee pulled away. With runners at second and third with one out, Jake Taylor dropped down a perfect squeeze bunt, scoring the runner from third. Another run would come in to score on an errant throw to second from Ball.

AppleSox reliever Dawson Day threw the final three frames and struck out the side in the ninth, sending the Pippins to a 5-2 loss.

The Pippins will get a day off on Thursday before heading to Port Angeles on Friday to take on the Lefties. First pitch of game one at 6:35.

By Kevin Vallene

July 5, 2018