The Eugene Emeralds held the Boise Hawks hitless for the first five and 2/3 innings Sunday afternoon, and surrendered one unearned run and two hits in the game in an 8-1 victory Sunday afternoon at PK Park.
Emeralds starter Juan Herrera threw five hitless innings and faced the minimum before being lifted when he reached his five-inning pitching limit, giving up one baserunner on a third-inning walk. The 6’1” right-hander from Bani, Dominican Republic, struck out two Hawks looking, and threw an efficient 49 pitches.
“Our pitchers were fantastic,” Emeralds left fielder Kyle Gaedele said. “When our pitchers throw strikes, they’re very difficult to hit, so I’m giving credit to our pitching staff. They did a heck of a job today.”
The Emeralds (2-1) jumped on Hawks starting pitcher Jin-Yeong Kim, who had significant control problems. Kim walked three batters — who all scored — and threw first-pitch strikes to only four of the 18 batters he faced in his four innings of work.
Eugene opened the scoring in the second inning when Gaedele walked and was driven in on first baseman Zach Kometani’s double past a diving Hawks third baseman Willson Contreras.
In the third inning, Gaedele returned the favor, lacing a triple down the third-base line to score shortstop Jace Peterson and second baseman Cory Spangenberg.
“You’re just looking for a pitch to hit,” Gaedele said. “We haven’t come up with the big hit really at all this year, just looking for something over the plate, something I can put in play and drive, and I got lucky that it stayed inside the bag.”
Boise (1-2) scored its solitary run in the top of the sixth inning after shortstop Wes Darvill reached on a throwing error from Peterson on what would have been a bang-bang play at first base for the final out of the inning. The next batter, center fielder Pin-Chieh Chen, hit a grounder past a diving Peterson for the Hawks’ first hit. Their only other hit would come in the top of the eighth inning from left fielder D.J. Fitzgerald.
What was a tight 3-1 game was broken open when the Emeralds batted around in the bottom of the eighth inning, scoring five insurance runs to put the game out of reach for the Hawks. Eugene designated hitter Travis Whitmore hit a two-run triple to open the scoring in the inning, driving in right fielder Lee Orr — who replaced injured left fielder Jose Dore in the top of the seventh inning — and pinch runner Clint Moore.
Despite the offensive outburst, first-year Emeralds manager Pat Murphy said his team was having problems at the plate.
“We’re still sputtering a little bit offensively. We’re not really clicking. I know that sounds crazy,” Murphy said. “There’s not a lot of guys satisfied with the way they’re swinging the bat, which is OK — somehow we came out on top.”
The Emeralds host the Hawks for game four of their five-game series Monday at 7 p.m. at PK Park.