As the Eugene Emeralds trailed 2-1 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, things looked grim. The bottom third of the order was set to bat against Salem-Keizer Volcanoes reliever Cody Hall, who had struck out two Emeralds batters in the eighth inning. Hall struck out Emeralds center fielder Kyle Gaedele to begin the ninth inning, and the Emeralds’ outlook was even bleaker.
But Emeralds catcher Matt Colantonio hit a single past Volcanoes second baseman Kaohi Downing to start a rally. The Emeralds eventually had the bases loaded against Hall with two outs, just in time for designated hitter Cory Spangenberg’s spot in the order.
The Northwest League’s leader in on-base percentage did not fail to disappoint, lacing a first-pitch single to left field that plated two runs and gave the Emeralds a walk-off, come-from-behind 3-2 win — the team’s eighth straight — over the Volcanoes at a sparsely populated PK Park Wednesday night.
“We just hung on and kept on battling until the last out and you never know what could happen in baseball,” Spangenberg said.
Apart from their timely hitting late in the game, the Emeralds (11-2) struggled to string hits together to score against the Volcanoes’ (2-11) pitching staff. Eugene scattered eight hits and was only able to muster a first-inning run on second baseman Travis Whitmore’s single to left field to score Spangenberg.
“That’s baseball, you know. You have an outing like that where you can’t really put hits together and you can’t put runs on the board,” first-year manager Pat Murphy said. “And I’m telling you, that kid — that kid has been unbelievable. But the whole ninth inning was patience, patience, and a pretty special ending.”
After that first inning, the Emeralds relied on their pitching staff to do most of the work in the game. Starter Juan Herrera was deemed “effectively wild” by Murphy, but he went five shutout innings, giving up three hits and three walks with one strikeout. Herrera has yet to give up a run in 10 innings at PK Park this season.
The Emeralds had an opportunity to build upon their one run lead in the third inning, but shortstop Jace Peterson was thrown out attempting to score from third base on a flyout to right field by Spangenberg. Eugene also squandered another chance to build on its lead when it had three straight hits to load the bases in the bottom of the sixth inning, but left fielder Mykal Stokes struck out to end the team’s opportunity.
Emeralds reliever Jeremy Gigliotti had a woeful outing in the seventh inning, giving up a two-run single to Volcanoes shortstop Joe Panik and then hitting designated hitter Mike Murray with a pitch before being pulled for Chris Haney. Haney struck out Salem-Keizer catcher Joe Staley to end the seventh inning before striking out two more batters in the eighth inning.
The team was enthusiastic about keeping its winning streak alive.
“This is a great feeling, we have a great ballclub here and just to keep on winning and persevering like we did here tonight was great,” Spangenberg said.
Despite the streak, Murphy still believes the team has work to do to be more consistent offensively.
“They know that things are working out for us well right now,” Murphy said. “We’re not playing great baseball — that motivates them to get better.”
Murphy also put the team’s winning streak in the perspective of his job to teach and develop the players for the San Diego Padres, the major-league partner of the Emeralds.
“As a coach, you don’t worry about the wins and losses. You worry about how they’re playing,” Murphy said. “Of course, the outcomes affect a lot of how things, but you worry about putting them in good positions to win.”
The Emeralds end their three-game set with the Volcanoes Thursday night at 7 p.m. at PK Park. The game is “Grateful Dead Night” and the team will be wearing tie-dye alternate uniforms that will be auctioned off after the game.