After winning 9-5 on opening night, the Eugene Emeralds beat the Spokane Indians 8-6 at Avista Stadium on Wednesday. A collective offensive effort fueled the win, with Patrick Bailey, Logan Wyatt, Diego Rincones and Ismaell Munguia each collecting a pair of hits. Munguia led the way with three RBIs.
Kai-Weng Teng, the Giants’ No. 18 prospect, started on the mound for the Emeralds. He made his first start at the High-A level after posting a 1.58 ERA in Class-A in 2019.
The Indians rallied off him early as a single, a walk and a double made it 1-0 in the first inning. A second run came in on a groundout to give Spokane a 2-0 advantage.
Teng bounced back with a perfect second inning. The Emeralds collected a baserunner in each of the first three innings, but were unable to rally off Indians right-hander Chris McMahon.
After a single from Wyatt with two outs in the fourth, a homer from Sean Roby tied it up in the blink of an eye. The homer was Roby’s second of the season and knotted the score at two apiece.
Teng settled in, retiring nine straight batters after that shaky first. However, the streak was broken up with a solo homer in the bottom of the fourth that put the Indians back in front, 3-2.
Catching prospect Bailey, who went 3-for-5 with a home run on Tuesday, hit a two-out double in the fourth but was left stranded.
Teng was replaced by Taylor Rashi after issuing a one-out walk in the fifth. The runner stole second, but Rashi was able to record the final two outs of the inning.
The Emeralds rallied back in the sixth. After Will Wilson singled, Wyatt reached on an error to put two runners on. Rincones singled to load the bases, and Tyler Fitzgerald hit a two-run double to put Eugene on top, 4-3.
A sacrifice fly from Munguia and an RBI single from Bailey added two more and the Emeralds took a 6-3 lead.
Rashi continued to deal, striking out the side in order in the bottom of the sixth.
A walk and back-to-back hit batters loaded the bases with no outs for the Emeralds in the seventh. With two outs, Munguia hit a two-run single to extend the lead to five.
Solomon Bates came in for Rashi in the bottom of the seventh. The first two batters walked and homered against him to cut the Emeralds’ lead to 8-5. The Indians threatened to add more with runners on the corners and one out, but Bates induced a fly out and a lineout to escape further damage.
Spokane added another run in the eighth with a two-out RBI single off of Travis Perry. Jose Marte replaced him with runners on the corners and two outs, and retired the final batter to hold the Emeralds’ 8-6 lead.
Marte recorded the final three outs to secure the Emeralds’ second straight victory to begin the season.
The Emeralds (2-0) and Indians (0-2) will continue with the third game of their six-game series on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
