NANAIMO, British Columbia — Yakima Valley’s offense stayed hot Tuesday night, but the Pippins fell 9-7 to the Nanaimo Night Owls in the first game of a six-game road trip on Vancouver Island.

The game was the next chapter of a familiar story for the Pippins recently: When pitchers have been dominant, the hitting has been lackluster, and vice versa. Tuesday night it was the offense that played well, racking up 10 hits to go along with the seven runs, even with a whopping 17 strikeouts — the overwhelming majority of those on called third strikes.

Gonzaga junior Tommy Eisenstat continued his hot start to the year, collecting three hits and two RBIs to raise his average to .387 this season. Gabe Villaflor was a spark plug as well, with two hits and three RBIs.

After giving up two runs in the first, Wyatt Adams, making his first start on the mound for the Pippins, surrendered just one more run over the next three innings.

But a costly error in the fifth gave the Night Owls a 6-4 lead, and they did not relinquish it the rest of the night.

Pippins pitchers combined to walk five batters and hit six more. Six of the nine Nanaimo runs were earned.

Game 2 of the series is at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday.