Pippins Rally to Tie Medford, But Fall in Extras

Despite rallying to tie the game in the 9^th, the Pippins fell to the Medford Rogues in 11 innings Tuesday, 3-2.

The visiting Rogues (21-23) wasted no time taking the lead, scoring twice in the top of the 1^st against Yakima Valley starter Darrion Simons. However, Simons and reliever Connor Lau bounced back to keep Medford off the board for the next nine innings. Simons went 5 2/3 innings overall and Lau worked 5 innings of scoreless baseball to keep the Pippins in it.

Yakima Valley (22-22) plated its first run in the 3^rd inning on a RBI triple from Jace Van De Brake. It was the second straight night Van De Brake had an RBI triple and it marked his fourth triple of the year, putting him atop the Pippins single-season leader board in the category.

Other than the RBI triple, Medford starter A.J. Dean made life tough on the Pippins. The righty worked nine innings in a no-decision and was one out away from finishing a complete game in the 9^th. However, a couple errors helped get a runner to 3^rd base with two outs, before Mitch Skaggs brought in the tying run with a single to right field. Skaggs finished the night 3-4 at the plate.

After a scoreless 10^th inning, Medford grabbed the lead in the 11^th on an RBI single. The Pippins got a two-out single in the 11^th but couldn’t sustain the rally and dropped their second consecutive game to the Rogues.

With a Corvallis win over Klamath Falls earlier Tuesday evening, the Pippins now sit 2 ½ games back in the West Coast League wild card race behind the Knights. They’ll look to avoid being swept Wednesday in the series finale at 7:05 p.m. on Upper Valley Night at County Stadium.

Tune in live on 1460 ESPN Yakima at 6:55.