Thursday night’s matchup between the Emeralds and Hillsboro Hops in Hillsboro, OR featured two starters whose ERA were hovering around five –– Aaron Phillips for Eugene and Brandon Pfaadt for the Hops.
Thursday was a different story however as both Phillips and Pfaadt lasted deep into the game that the Emeralds would end up winning 3-1. The Emeralds have now won their last 10 matchups against the Hops.
The Emeralds did a majority of their damage in the first. Ismael Munguia led off the game with a single to right, and two batters later, Armani Smith brought him home with a two-run bomb to center.
Smith has been on fire since being called up from San Jose. In just 13 games with the team, he’s blasted four home runs while driving in 15 and batting .333.
Eugene tacked on another run in the third. Munguia led off the rally again with a double to right. Will Wilson clutched up next, sending a ground rule double to right center to grow the lead to 3-0.
Phillips wiggled out of jams in both the first and second inning, but the Hops would break the run column in the third. Reece Hampton led off the inning with a triple to deep center field, and he scored on the next play off a Spencer Brickhouse sacrifice fly.
With that, the Hops cut the lead to 3-1.
The Hops had a great chance to tack on in the fifth with runners on the corners and two outs, but Phillips got Eduardo Diaz to fly out to keep the two-run lead intact.
After rocky beginnings from both Pfaadt and Phillips, both pitchers would find their groove in the middle innings.
Pfaadt rebounded from a rough first inning to give the Hops seven strong innings in which he walked only one batter while striking out seven.
Phillips’ numbers don’t pop out as much as Pfaadt’s, but the righty still was in command for most of the game. He finished the outing with seven innings, seven hits and three strikeouts but just one run surrendered.
Tyler Schimpf came in in relief for Phillips in the eighth. Despite running into some command issues, Schimpf still escaped the inning damage free to keep the two-run lead.
Chris Wright got the rock for the Emeralds in the ninth and continued his dominance with two strikeouts to claim the victory. Wright has now struck out 41 batters in just 19.1 innings of work with a WHIP of 1.03.
With their fifth consecutive win, the Emeralds improve to 33-17 while the Hops drop to 19-30. The two teams will be back at it again Friday night at 7:05 p.m. at Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro.
