The Eugene Emeralds will not be playoff contenders in 2015.
An RBI-sacrifice fly in the lone at bat by Hillsboro’s Gerard Hernandez in the eighth inning provided the Hops a 3-2 lead the Emeralds could not overcome.
Eugene’s Alberto Mineo led off the ninth inning with a walk and reached second base with one out after a sacrifice bunt. Mineo moved to third on Donnie Dewees’s groundout, but was stranded when P.J. Higgins’s sharp fly ball was tracked down by the right-fielder to end the game.
After the Emeralds (CHC) took two wins in a three-game series with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (SF) last week, they sat in first place of the Northwest League South and controlled their own destiny. Had they won their final three-game series with the second-place Hillsboro Hops (ARI), they would have made their first playoffs since 2011.
The Hops had other plans. They silenced the Eugene offense and won the first two games, a 2-0 shutout Friday and 4-1 victory Saturday. The two wins propelled the Hops past the Emeralds into first place and clinched the second-half title for Hillsboro.
Hillsboro won the season’s first and second half, meaning its opponent in the playoffs came down to the team with the next best record for the entire season.
Salem-Keizer entered its final series with an overall record one game worse than Eugene. It had to win its series with the last-place Boise Hawks (COL) to stay alive, and win it did. The Volcanoes took the first two games against the Hawks, improving their record to one game better than the Emeralds. Both teams had one game to play.
The Emeralds needed help from Salem-Keizer after they squandered their division lead. They would have to beat the Hops in their final game to split the series, and the Hawks would have to beat the Volcanoes in their final game to avoid the sweep.
No such luck was granted. Hillsboro completed the sweep and squashed the Emeralds’ hopes.
The Emeralds (22-16) finished the season’s second half one game behind the first-place Hops (23-15). Even if the Emeralds won the last game, the Hillsboro would have won the division tie-breaker because it owned a better head-to-head record against Eugene.
At the conclusion of the 2015 Class A Short Season’s first half, the Emeralds (17-21) finished third in the Northwest League South, five games back of the champion Hillsboro Hops (22-16) and three games behind the second-place Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (20-18).
The Hops won both the first and second halves of the season, thus the team with the next best overall winning percentage advances to the playoffs. Had Eugene won and Salem-Keizer lost today, the Emeralds would have finished the year with the same record as the Volcanoes, but Eugene would have won the tiebreaker because it won five of its nine second-half match-ups with Salem-Keizer. The Emeralds and Volcanoes entered their final-three game series Sept. 1 – 3 with equal records of 3-3, but Eugene went on to win the rubber series 2-1.
Instead, the Volcanoes will host the first game of a three-game series with Hillsboro Sept. 7 – 9 to determine the winner of the Northwest League South. The winner will play the Northwest League North’s winner, either the Everett AquaSox (SEA) or the Tri-City Dust Devils (SD), Friday, Sept. 11 in the Northwest League Championship winner-take-all game.
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby
Eugene Emeralds eliminated from playoff contention after season-ending sweep
Kenny Jacoby
September 5, 2015
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