LONGVIEW – For the second straight night, the Pippins left David Story Field with a 7-2 win over the Cowlitz Black Bears.

Friday night, one explosive inning did most of the damage for Yakima Valley (25-22). Saturday, it was a more spread-out attack, with the Pippins scoring in six of the nine innings.

Yakima Valley got its first two runs of the night on wild pitches in the 1st and 4th innings. In the 5th, Jake Manson made it a 3-1 game with an RBI double to left-center field. Yakima Valley added two runs in the 6th, one in the 7th and two in the 9th to finish off another high-scoring evening.

The seven runs would be plenty for Yakima Valley starter Mitch Yada. The southpaw started slow, giving up an RBI double in the 1st that allowed Cowlitz (18-29) to tie the game at 1. However, he retired 15 of the next 16 hitters he saw – including a stretch of 13 straight – to quiet the Black Bears’ offense. Yada finished with 7 innings of work, 3 hits, an earned run, 3 walks and tied his season-high with 7 strikeouts.

Saturday’s win was Yakima Valley’s third in a row in league play. Corvallis also won at Walla Walla, keeping the Pippins 1 ½ games back in the wild card race. With the series win already locked up, the Pippins will go for the sweep of Cowlitz Sunday at 5:05 p.m.

Catch it live on 1460 ESPN Yakima starting at 4:55.

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