The Yakima Valley Pippins wrote themselves into the West Coast League record books Monday night after holding off the Cowlitz Black Bears, 11-8, at County Stadium. The win lifts the Pippins to 31-18 -- the most wins ever by an WCL expansion team.

And undefeated Eli Morgan pitched his eighth win of the season, tying a record for most pitching wins.

The Pippins struck first in the bottom the first inning with two runs. In the third inning the Pippins rocked the Black Bears' pitching for eight runs, thanks to a three-run triple from Alex Guenette, RBI singles by Harrison Ramey, Mitch Skaggs and Reid Martinez. That gave the home team an intimidating 10-0 lead.

But Cowlitz started to slowly gain some ground in the fourth and fifth innings. Daniel Orr hit an RBI sacrifice fly and Jonathan Sevren's triple drove in two. A throwing error got the Black Bears back into the game, 10-5 Pippins.

The seventh inning saw the new arrival for the Pippins, Kyle Thompson, hit his first homer of the season to make it 11-5. In the eighth and ninth innings the Black Bears came up with three more runs, but fell short as the Pippins won their eighth straight game.

The win also puts the Pippins four and half games ahead of Wenatchee in the Eastern Division of the WCL.

The Pippins and Black Bears play again at 7:05 tonight. Pregame starts at 6:55 p.m. on 1460 ESPN Yakima.

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