The Eugene Emeralds dropped the first game of a six-game series to the last place Tri-City Dust Devils on Tuesday at Gesa Stadium.

They appeared to be in control for most of the game despite minimal offense. Conner Nurse was locked in, but the team lost hold of its 2-0 lead in the seventh inning, giving up a three-spot that they couldn’t recover from. They ultimately fell 3-2.

Each team’s starter kicked things off with a perfect first inning — Eugene’s Nurse doing so on just five pitches.

Each team went down quietly again in the second. Logan Wyatt led off the third inning with his sixth double of the year — the first baserunner for either team. Wyatt was stranded on third, as the Emeralds failed to score any runs in three innings against Angels 2021 second-round pick Ky Bush.

The Emeralds struck first with a Sean Roby homer in the fourth inning. It was Roby’s 17th homer of the year, eight of which have come in August.

Nurse retired 13 of the first 14 batters he faced, issuing only a lead-off walk in the third. He finally surrendered a hit with one out in the fifth to former Oregon Duck Kyle Kasser. He rebounded with a strikeout and a pop out, making it through five scoreless innings with six strikeouts.

Brett Auerbach doubled in the top of the sixth, and Armani Smith drove him in with a single to extend the Emeralds’ lead to 2-0.

Nurse eventually cracked in the seventh, giving up back-to-back singles — the latter of which was hit by former Duck Kenyon Yovan. A groundout brought in a run, cutting the Emeralds’ lead in half and knocking Nurse out of the game.

The usually reliable Austin Reich came in and struck out Kasser, but then gave up a two-run homer. All of a sudden, Tri-City led 3-2.

Roby and Marco Luciano singled in the ninth, but Wyatt struck out to end it. It was an unfortunate loss for the Emeralds, who are in a tight race with the Everett AquaSox for the High-A West title.

Eugene will look to bounce back on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.