For a while Tuesday night, it seemed the central Washington weather would rule the day.

Wind, rain and warnings of severe thunder and lightning threatened to put a damper on game one of the West Coast League playoff series between the East Division champion Yakima Valley Pippins and West Division-winning Bellingham Bells.

But a stronger system prevailed from the west as Bellingham left Yakima County Stadium with a 4-1 win over Yakima and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three playoff series.

Bellingham's Eder Erives and Yakima's Andrew Woods dueled it out for the first three innings before the Bells' Dallas Carroll hit a solo home run that barely cleared the outfield fence.

The Bells struck again in the sixth inning with a triple by Scott Heath, who later scored on an RBI single by Danny Miller, putting Bellingham up 2-0.

In the seventh, the Pippins got a couple of runners in scoring position. Ryan Yamane grounded out, but scored Reid Martinez to make it 2-1.

The Bells got another run in the eighth after a bad hop bit Mitch Skaggs and allowed a Walker Olis. Scott Heath got an RBI on a sacrifice fly to score the final run for Bellingham in the ninth inning.

In the end, Erives got the win for the Bells, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing three hits. Dan Ludwig got the save and Woods took the loss.

The series now shifts to Bellingham. The Pippins and Bells play game two tonight at 7:05, with pregame coverage beginning at 6:55 on 1460 ESPN Yakima.

More From 92.9 The Bull