Pippins Drop Game One of Non-League Series Against Highline

Yakima, Wa. — The Highline Bears of the Pacific International League made the trip over from south Seattle for a brief two-game non-league series against the Pippins today and took game one of the series by a final score of 6-1.

The Pippins sent the right-hander Dylan Bishop to the mound for his first start and first appearance as a Pippin this summer. The Selah product impressed in his first outing for the team in 2019, pitching 5.2 innings allowing 6 hits, 5 runs (none earned) and 3 walks with 1 strikeout. For the Bears, starter Michael Jarvis put up an equally impressive performance, throwing seven shutout innings allowing just 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 batters.

The game was scoreless through the first 5 full innings, with both teams combining for just 4 hits. Then, in the top of the sixth inning, the Bears broke the game wide open, scoring 5 runs on 5 hits. The inning began with a single by Bears’ nine-hole batter Garrett Kollar, then leadoff batter Tori Doten reached on an error by Pippins shortstop Tanner Parker, putting the first two baserunners on. James Kolbyt followed with an RBI single, the games first run scored. After Kaelen Martin grounded into a fielder’s choice, Bears’ cleanup batter Dillon O’Grady hit a liner out to left for an RBI, scoring Doten. After that another RBI single by Kenny Miller made it 3-0 Bears. Jarret Leinwand struck out swinging to give the Bears two outs in the inning, then with a full count and runners taking off with the pitch, Bears’ DH Trey Hunt roped a 2-RBI double to the gap, scoring O’Grady and Miller. Pippins starter Dylan Bishop was then relieved by Dominic Miller, who hit batter JJ Fahnlander on the first pitch before getting the inning-leading batter Garrett Kollar to fly out to right field, ending the fateful inning for the Pippins.

The Pippins only run offensively came in the bottom of the eighth inning. With two outs, Brady Hormel got on base with a single, and DH Tyler Dean smoked a pitch out to the right-center gap for an RBI double, making it 5-1 Bears.

The Bears would pick up an insurance run in the top half of the ninth, with a leadoff single by JJ Fahnlander, who then reached second on a throwing error by Pippins’ first baseman Tyler Dean, and eventually came around to score on a two-out RBI single by Kaelen Martin.

The Bears sent out reliever Danny Shafer in the bottom half of ninth to close out the ballgame, and the Pippins went down 1-2-3 with a popout from Christian Padilla, a strikeout swinging from Tanner Parker, and finally a strikeout swinging from pinch-hitter Luke Schwartz.

The team returns back to action again tomorrow night for the final game of the two-game home series against the Bears. First pitch at the Orchard is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

By Yakima Valley Pippins

July 31, 2019