Sox Sweep Away Pippins
/WENATCHEE, WA - The AppleSox defeated the Yakima Valley Pippins, 8-4, to pick up their 12th straight home win and fifth sweep of the season on Sunday night at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium.
Torin Montgomery and Kody Darcy both homered to give the Sox 32 home runs this summer. That ties the team’s single-season home-run record previously set in 2017.
The AppleSox have won eight consecutive games, seven straight just in West Coast League play. Wenatchee is tied for first place in the North Division with Victoria with six games remaining in the regular season. If the Sox win the division outright, tie with Victoria for first or finish second behind Victoria but have the second-best overall record in the North, then they will qualify for the 2019 West Coast League Playoffs.
The Pippins scored in the first inning for the first time in the series with back-to-back one-out base-hits. Though the AppleSox didn’t score in the bottom of the first, they struck for four runs in the bottom of the second. Hunter Montgomery and Torin Montgomery opened with a walk and a single, respectively, then on scored on consecutive RBI singles by Kody Darcy and Brett Gillis. Two batters later, Kodie Kolden singled in Darcy and Gillis with an RBI single of his own.
Wenatchee stretched the score to 6-1 when Torin Montgomery blasted a two-run homer 360 feet in the third inning. The long ball marked his first in an AppleSox uniform in his second game with the team.
Yakima Valley scored three times in the fifth to cut the deficit to two and had a chance to tie or take the lead in the sixth after loading up the bases. Although they did so with no outs, the Pippins could not score after the Sox turned a double play at the plate and first and then induced a popout to center to end the inning.
The Sox added two more runs in the sixth on a leadoff home run by Darcy and then Blake Klassen hit an RBI single to plate the final run of the evening.
After an off day on Monday, the Sox host the Ridgefield Raptors at 6:35 on Tuesday night. That will be the first game of the final three-game home series of the summer for the AppleSox.