The Eugene Emeralds were happy to see an opponent other than the Everett AquaSox on Tuesday.
After brutally losing five straight to Everett at home, they began a road series against the Spokane Indians with a 12-4 win. The offense came alive after being overpowered by the AquaSox, with home runs from Heath Quinn, Franklin Labour and Brett Auerbach.
The Emeralds struck first, as Tyler Fitzgerald came through with a clutch two-out single with two runners on base in the top of the first inning. After one run scored, a second came home on a throwing error by the Indians’ Michael Toglia.
Spokane struck back with a solo shot in the bottom of the frame against Aaron Philips to cut the lead in half.
In the third inning, the Emeralds were gifted with another two-out single, this time off the bat of Labour. He brought home two more runs with his bases-loaded knock to extend the Emeralds’ lead to 4-1.
Once again, the Indians struck back with a single run in the bottom of the frame, as Phillips surrendered a one-out, run-scoring double.
Phillips got himself into some trouble in the fourth, allowing two singles and a walk to load the bases with one out. The next batter singled up the middle and everyone moved up 90 feet, putting the tying run on third base with still only one out. Emeralds manager Dennis Pelfrey elected to pull Phillips right there, and on Phillips’ walk back to the dugout, he said something to the umpire and was ejected from the game.
Travis Perry replaced him, and induced a line drive to center that was caught by Ismael Munguia. Munguia doubled the runner off third, leading to some momentary confusion as to what exactly happened and whether Munguia did indeed make the catch. But it was ruled a double play, as the Emeralds were fortunate enough to escape the fourth inning still leading by a run.
The Emeralds tacked on three more in the sixth on a blast by Quinn. It was Quinn’s first homer as an Emerald, extending their lead to 7-3.
Perry allowed a run that came home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning, but surrendered no further damage.
Ricardo Genoves drove in another run in the seventh with a sacrifice fly. Labour followed him with a two-run homer, extending the lead to 10-4 and blowing it open.
Auerbach piled it on with a two-run homer in the eighth. A fielding error by Fitzgerald extended the game with two outs in the ninth, but reliever Tyler Schimpf shut the door on the 12-4 victory.
After briefly dipping below zero, the Emeralds’ run differential is now back up to +6.
They’ll continue their quest to catch back up to the AquaSox in the standings in Game 2 against the Indians on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
