The Eugene Emeralds kicked off their 2016 campaign with a convincing 6-1 victory against the Boise Hawks on “Reverse the Curse” night at PK Park on Friday.
The Emeralds are the short-season Class A team for the Chicago Cubs, and just like their Major League Baseball affiliate, the Emeralds were able to “Fly the W” in convincing fashion on opening night.
Dylan Cease made his Emeralds debut and delivered a strong performance giving, up only two hits and one run in four innings of work.
Cease was a sixth round selection in the 2014 MLB Draft. He was considered an early-round talent, but his stock fell when he underwent Tommy John surgery prior to the draft.
“He was good.” Emerald third baseman Matt Rose said of Cease’s pitching performance. “He found the strike zone and gave us four good innings.”
Rose got the night started offensively for the Emeralds with a two run home run to left center field in the first inning. His home run set the tone for what would be a strong offensive showing for the Ems.
Boise starting pitcher Michael Zimmerman surrendered a pair of runs again in the third inning that boosted Eugene’s lead to 4-0. The Emeralds cashed in those runs on a wild throw on a steal attempt followed by wild pitch.
In the fourth inning, the Emeralds were able to plate another run to make it 5-0 and threatened to score again with runners on first and second. Boise manager Andy Gonzalez had seen enough, and went to the bullpen. Reliever Christian Talley came on to replace Zimmerman, got out of the jam and tossed 3.1 innings of one hit, scoreless baseball.
Zimmerman went 3.2 innings, struck out six, walked five and surrendered four earned runs on the night to earn the loss.
Emeralds Manager Jesus Feliciano would pull Cease going into the fifth and the game then became a battle of the bullpens.
Both bullpens pitched three straight shutout innings before the Emeralds tacked on one more insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Rose believes that’s a winning formula for the Emeralds going forward.
“We’ve got depth pitching,” Rose said. “We’ve got good defense all around us. Guys can swing it, so I think we’ll be in contention at the end of the year.”
Game two of the three game series between the Emeralds and the Hawks will begin Saturday night at 7:05 pm.
Follow Zak Laster on Twitter @zlast3445