The Bellingham Bells hit the ground running in their return to West Coast League play as they shut out the Yakima Valley Pippins 4-0 to improve to 16-6 in the league.

The shutout was the fourth this season for the Bells and they are now tied for the league lead.

Bellingham got the ball rolling in the second inning when Michael Petrie singled home two runs with two outs in the inning to give the Bells a 2-0 lead.

The Bells would add a single run in both the fifth and the eighth innings to make it a 4-0 game.

Pitching was the bright spot again for the Bells as they got a tremendous start from Nick Nastrini.

Nastrini pitched his third straight quality start and is now 3-0 on the year after throwing six shutout innings allowing just four hits and walking two. He also struck out three.

Chris Micheles came on in relief and threw an inning and a third of perfect baseball and Justin Armbruester threw the final 1.2 innings.

Armbruester was unhittable again, facing five batters and striking out four of them.

Bellingham is now one game closer to clinching the first half championship and a win on Saturday and a loss by Kelowna would give them the first half title.