Pippins Score 12 in Win Over NW Star Nighthawks

Pippins bat around, score six in eighth inning

The Yakima Valley Pippins took advantage of a pair of errors, five hit batsmen and eight walks to cruise to a 12-3 victory over the Northwest Star Nighthawks Tuesday night.

The Pippins will play the Nighthawks again Wednesday night as part of a string of six non-league games over seven days before returning to West Coast League play June 22.

The Nighthawks struck first after Carter Monda reached on an error by Spencer Marenco, Brooks Dyer walked, and Nick Laurenza singled them both home.

The Pippins answered in the bottom half with a leadoff double by Taylor Holder and an RBI-base hit by Chaz Myers, but the Nighthawks held onto a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning.

Tuesday was a bullpen day for the Pippins, as they used six pitchers, with no pitcher receiving more than two innings of work. Ryan Arredondo (0-0, 4.50 ERA) started the game, surrendering two runs (one earned), before giving way to Case Matter (0-0, 0.00 ERA) who pitched a scoreless third inning in his Pippins debut.

Spencer Marenco led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a triple, then scored on a Jordan Hara sacrifice fly to tie the game 2-2. With two outs in the same inning, Chaz Myers was hit and Mason Marenco walked before Noah Williamson doubled them both home to take a 4-2.

Ben Wills (1-0, 0.00 ERA) received the win as he was the pitcher of record when the Pippins took the lead. Payton Robertson, Kirby Robertson and Tyler Frieders combined to handle the final four innings.

The Nighthawks narrowed Yakima’s lead to one run in the seventh, but the Pippins added another two in the bottom half to take a 6-3 lead into the eighth.

Nighthawks reliever Boone Rush struggled, giving up a base hit to Blake Dickman to start the inning before walking or hitting six of the next seven batters he faced, forcing in four runs. The Nighthawks turned to Dyer, their DH, to put out the fire. He allowed another run to score on a passed ball, walked the bases loaded again and gave up Dickman’s second hit of the inning to score the 12th Pippins run of the night before recording the final two outs. 

Representatives from the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners organizations, as well as the University of Washington and Oregon State, were in attendance for Tuesday’s game after the Pippins had put together an impressive start to their season.

Wednesday night’s game against the Nighthawks will be the first Baseball Bingo Winning Wednesday of the season. First pitch will be at 6:35 p.m.

By Chris Rosato Jr.

June 16, 2021