Bend Blows Early Lead, Drops Series Finale to Yakima Valley

The Bend Elks missed out on a sweep of the Yakima Valley Pippins, ending its winning streak of three games. (Andrew Green)

Yakima, WA - Despite jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the first two innings, the Bend Elks bats fell flat the rest of the way, surrendering 15 unanswered runs to the Yakima Valley Pippins, who claimed a 15-6 victory over the Elks in the series finale to avoid the sweep.

Game three followed a similar tale to the night before; the Elks scored the first run of the game on an RBI single by Steven Meier in the top of the first. Bend tacked on four more as Yakima, who walked a season-high 13 batters in game two, handed out six free passes in the second inning allowing four runners to come across in the frame.

Yet, the Elks' (4-5) early spark would be put out by the wave Yakima Valley (4-5) had the rest of the game. What started as a tiny ripple quickly turned into a tidal wave of hits and runs, as the Pippins scored one run in the second, four in the fifth, and then poured it on with ten runs over the seventh and eighth inning to overtake the Elks.

Bend, who alluded to struggles defensively in game two with five errors, had those previous mistakes carry over into Sunday's finale, where the Elks committed three errors, extending scoring opportunities for the Pippins, who ended up bringing across five unearned runs.

Yakima's pitching caused Bend to strike out a season-worst ten times and, at one point, had retired one out of ten Elks they faced.

Bend returns home for a two-game non-league set against the Northwest Star Nighthawks before setting out on a daunting quest to Corvallis to take on the six-time defending West Coast League Champion Corvallis Knights.