WALLA WALLA, Wash.- After a tough series loss against Portland and the first off day in 2 weeks, the Pippins went into Walla Walla desperate for a win and they found one.

A game that saw good defense, good pitching, and timely offense ended in a 4-3 Pippins victory.

It started with a bang as the Pippins came out of the gate with a 1st inning 2-out rally. A wild pitch on a strikeout kept things alive and 2 more would reach loading the bases.

Jackson Reed would then open the scoring with his 2-RBI knock and the Pippins jumped to an early 2-0 lead.

Caden Duke did a solid job in his first start with the Pippins this summer. After a 1-2-3 first, he ran into his only trouble in the 2nd when a 2-out bad hop over the first baseman’s head scored 2 and a wild pitch scored another.

Through 2 innings it would be a 3-2 Walla Walla lead.

The scoreboard wouldn’t change much after that. Chris Grothues came on in the 4th and tossed 4 scoreless innings striking out 5 Sweets batters and keeping it a one run game.

In the meantime, the Pippins offense had several chances to tie things up.

Reed continued his solid performance with a leadoff triple in the 4th but would be thrown out at the plate on a wild pitch.

Another would-be tying run was thrown out on a baserunning mistake in the 6th and the 8th would start with Walla Walla still in front.

Connor Coballes opened up the 8th with a single after a diving snag from Leo Rivera saw the throw just off-line and Jaxon Sorenson followed it up with his 6th double of the year yanked down the line in right.

With the tying and go-ahead runners on base, Sam Olsson had a bloop RBI single into center and a wild pitch put the Pippins in front 4-3.

6-outs from victory after taking the lead, the Pippins turned to Rowan Trosky in his first appearance with the Pippins. A pair of groundouts and a flyout ended the 8th and Trosky would retire the side in order again in the 9th to earn the save and the Pippins win.

Yakima Valley advances to 6-16 on the year while Walla Walla falls to 9-10. The rematch is tomorrow at 6:35 on mixlr.com/pippinsbaseball.