Pippins Give Up a Season High 9 Runs in Loss to Falcons
The Kelowna Falcons scored early and often, pounding out 15 hits in their 9-2 win over the Pippins on Tuesday.
Matt Driver started for the Pippins and immediately ran into trouble. After a one out walk to Ryan Fish followed by a single by Cody Crowder, Taylor Wright hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Fish. Dan Pruitt followed and crushed a two run home run off of the scoreboard in left field. The home run gave the Falcons a 3-0 lead before the Pippins were able to swing a bat.
The Falcons played add on in the third without recording a hit in the inning. Cody Crowder lead off the inning with a groundball that was booted by Jake Moberg at shortstop. Taylor Wright would follow with a walk, putting runners at first and second with no one out. After a fly out, Trent Tinglestad would hit a ground ball to third that Nick DiCarlo would dive and catch on a bounce. DiCarlo threw to second for the second out of the inning, but Tyler Hollow's throw to first for a double play sailed over Bryce Wooldridge's head and into the Falcons dugout. Crowder would come in to score and Tinglestad would end up at second base. Jake Fischer followed with a groundball to third that went under the glove of DiCarlo and into left field, scoring another run and extending the Falcons' lead to 5-0. Driver would be pulled after recording the final out of the third inning.
The Pippins got on the board in the fourth inning. Cole Pofek lead off with a single followed by a walk to Chris Arpan. After a strikeout and another base hit to load the bases, Victor Cerny hit a ground ball to first base driving in Pofek from third.
In the fifth, the Falcons answered with three more runs off of reliever Nick Flesher with a two run double by Tyler Nixon and an RBI single from Ryan Fish.
The Pippins offense would only be able to muster one more run in the sixth inning with a sacrifice fly by pinch hitter Jonathan Imperial scoring Cole Pofek. Falcons starter Jered Akin shut down the Pippins giving up just the two runs over six innings.
The game would be scoreless the rest of the way, with Pippins pitching escaping multiple scoring threats from the Falcons. In the ninth inning, the Pippins would strand runners at first and second in the ninth inning as they dropped the first game to the Falcons 9-2. The Pippins committed four errors, their second most all year and they also stranded twelve men on base. With the loss, the Pippins have dropped four straight WCL games.
Game two of the series is on Wednesday. First pitch at 6:35.