The Eugene Emeralds shared first place with the Everett AquaSox for about three hours and 20 minutes on Saturday.
They lost the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, falling 4-3 and dropping a game out of first. They held a 1-1 tie through the scheduled seven innings, then lost after a wild eighth inning where their comeback attempt came just short. They still lead the series 4-2 with one game left to play.
Jasier Herrera, a usual reliever, got the start for Eugene. His outing started with two groundouts to second. But then a single, a stolen base, a wild pitch and another single gave Everett a 1-0 lead. For the fifth time in six games this series, the AquaSox scored first.
Herrera gave up a lead-off single in the third, then surrendered a double to deep right field. It bounced over the fence for a ground rule double, preventing a run from scoring — the second time a ground rule double worked in the Emeralds’ favor on Saturday.
Herrera capitalized on PK Park’s funky dimensions, striking out the next two batters and inducing a pop out to miraculously escape with no more runs allowed.
After the Emeralds got out of that jam, their offense immediately came back to tie it. Kwan Adkins started the rally by reaching on a bunt hit. Tyler Fitzgerald then hit a sacrifice bunt, and the pitcher threw it away, allowing Adkins to come all the way around to score.
Herrera pitched four innings, giving up one run on five hits and no walks while striking out six.
The score remained knotted at one as neither offense could get anything going after the third inning. Travis Perry pitched two scoreless innings in relief. Tyler Schimpf issued a lead-off walk in the seventh. But –– with a small group of passionate kids chanting “Let’s go Emeralds!”–– he settled down to hold the tie and give the Emeralds a chance to walk it off.
With a runner on first and two outs in the ninth, up came none other than Marco Luciano to pinch hit on his poster giveaway night. This increased the energy in PK Park, despite a large portion of the crowd having already cleared out by then, but he struck out wildly.
The game went into the eighth inning despite only being scheduled for seven innings. And that’s when the Emeralds fell apart fundamentally.
The first batter reached on a throwing error by Fitzgerald, allowing the runner on second to score and giving Everett a 2-1 lead. The next batter hit a soft fly ball to left field that Armani Smith couldn’t catch, and the ball fell in for a “single.”
Schimpf struck out the next two in an attempt to clean out the mess. But, with two outs, he surrendered a two-run double that broke it open to 4-1. The rally was no fault of Schimpf’s, as the Emeralds’ defense and the relatively new extra innings rule hurt them.
Adkins got the Emeralds going in the bottom of the eighth by beating out a bunt hit for the second time in the game. With one out, Smith drove in a run with a single to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Sean Roby then got under one, hitting a routing fly ball to right field. Somehow, the right fielder dropped it at the last second, loading the bases for Jairo Pomares.
Pomares grounded out as a run came home to make it a 4-3 game. It all came down to Logan Wyatt, with two runners in scoring position and two outs. He put up a fight, fouling several pitches off before eventually flying out to left and ending the game.
The Emeralds’ brief time in a tie for first place came to an end. But they’ll have a chance to get that game back in Sunday’s series finale at 5:05 p.m.
