On Friday at PK Park, the Eugene Emeralds (31-15) came from behind to win a tight game against the Vancouver Canadians (20-25) by a score of 3-2.
Eugene’s victory came after it dropped the first game of the five game series 8-4 on Thursday.
On Thursday, the Ems gave up 14 hits. However, during Friday’s game, they limited that number to five due to a stronger pitching performance.
“Yesterday, there were a couple of balls that could have been caught,” Eugene pitching coach Brian Lawrence said. “I felt like yesterday we competed all the way through, but it just didn’t go our way.”
Emeralds pitcher Dylan Cease started out the game somewhat strongly, striking out Canadians’ Josh Palacios and Rodrigo Orozco before allowing Cavan Biggio to walk. While J.B. Woodman was at bat, Biggio stole second. Then, Woodman singled on a ground ball past diving shortstop, Yeiler Peguero, to send Biggio home for his 18th run of the season, putting the Canadians on the board.
Cease’s strong start was overshadowed by costly mistakes made in the second inning, though. He gave up two walks to Christian Williams and D. J. McKnight, and was relieved by Duncan Robinson. Cease finished with three walks and three strikeouts. With two outs and runners on first and second, Palacios reached first on a fielding error by Peguero. Luckily for the Emeralds, Rodrigo Orozco flied out to center fielder D. J. Wilson, preventing the Canadians from scoring with the bases loaded.
“We had maybe a few too many walks,” Lawrence said. “We made the pitches when we absolutely had to and held them to two runs when they had chances to score.”
The Canadians wouldn’t stay in the lead for long, however. To start off the bottom of the third, D.J. Wilson hit a double past first baseman Christian Williams. He was followed by Robert Garcia, who doubled on a fly ball that was picked off at the right field wall by Palacios. Though Wilson scored on the play for his eighth run of his season and the Ems’ first run of the night, Garcia was caught at second by shortstop Yeltsin Gudino. It was his twelve double of the season, which is more than he accumulated in the first three seasons of his career combined.
Neither team scored during the fourth inning, but the Canadians picked up their second run during the top of the fifth. Woodman achieved his 15th double of the season on a fly ball past left fielder Robert Garcia. With Hernandez at bat, a wild pitch by Robinson sent Woodman to third. He then singled on a ground ball to shortstop Peguero, while Woodman scored, putting them back in the lead at 2-1.
The Emeralds evened the score in the bottom of the fifth. Tyler Payne singled on a ground ball out to left fielder McKnight, sending Kevonte Mitchell, who had walked, to third. Then, D.J. Wilson singled on a ground ball to pitcher Dalton Rodriguez, allowing Mitchell to score. Robert Garcia bunted on a single, loading the bases. However, with no outs and Peguero at bat, the Canadians managed to prevent the Emeralds by scoring again on a 3-2-3 double play.
In the next inning, Emeralds’ pitcher Andin Diaz replaced Duncan Robinson, after allowing four hits. He retired Vancouver three up, three down, allowing the Ems to take the lead when it was their turn to bat. Marcus Mastrobuoni walked, and while Mitchell was at bat, he stole two bases and proceeded to score the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly by Mitchell.
Saturday at PK Park, the Emeralds will hope for a repeat performance at the third game in their series.
“Hopefully we can string a couple of wins together; get back on a roll like we were the first half,” Lawrence said.
Follow Hannah Bonnie on Twitter @hbonnie03