The Eugene Emeralds completed Saturday’s postponed game against the Hillsboro Hops on Sunday with a victory.
It was a bizarre set of circumstances for the Emeralds. They played one inning on Saturday, with Seth Corry setting the Hops down one-two-three before the lights mysteriously went out at Ron Tonkin Field. It was quite literally a “lights out” performance for Corry.
So, they resumed play at 11 a.m. on Sunday, completing the nine-inning game before playing a seven-inning series finale. They narrowly won the nine-inning game, picking up in the second inning and coming away with a 2-1 victory. They improved to 2-3 in the series with a chance to split the series in Sunday’s second game.
Conner Nurse took the mound for the second inning, taking over for Corry. He had to work around some baserunners, but he kept the Hops off the board through the fourth inning. The Emeralds’ offense, meanwhile, continued to struggle with runners in scoring position and couldn’t score any runs of their own.
Nurse finally cracked with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, giving up a run-scoring single.
The Emeralds loaded the bases with a single and a pair of walks in the sixth, but Ricardo Genoves struck out. The team was 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position at that point and a nearly incomprehensible 12-for-94 on the road trip.
The offense finally showed some life in the top of the seventh as Carter Aldrete tied the game with a solo home run. They didn’t stop there as Kwan Adkins drew a walk, and Brett Auerbach drove him in with an RBI triple. Just like that, the Emeralds led 2-1.
Nurse pitched a clean sixth and seventh inning, turning in a super solid outing in relief overall.
Austin Reich held things down in the eighth, and closer Chris Wright came in for the ninth as usual. Wright pitched a drama-free ninth, setting Hillsboro down in order.
It was an important win for the Emeralds, who are nearing the end of a frustrating road trip. They improved to 3-8 on the trip with one game left to play. Eugene is now one game behind first place Spokane and a half game behind second place Everett in the High-A West.
They’ll look to come away with a series split in the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader, which will start roughly 30 minutes after the completion of the first game.
