After a lackluster first half of the game, the Eugene Emeralds used an offensive barrage in the sixth inning to claim the 10-9 win over the Hillsboro Hops at PK Park on Thursday.
It was the battle of the Bryces on the mound in Eugene, with Bryce Tucker toeing the rubber for the Emeralds and Bryce Jarvis for the Hops. Despite this coincidence, Jarvis would fare much better than his counterpart.
The Hops did their damage on Tucker in the second inning. An error, a walk and a bloop single loaded the bases for Reece Hampton, who smashed a double just beyond the reach of Emeralds right fielder Franklin Labour. The next batter grounded out to second, scoring another run and ending Tucker’s day.
Tucker lasted just an inning and a third, surrendering two hits, two walks, and giving up four earned runs. With the score 3-0 Hops, the Emeralds turned to Nick Avila out of the bullpen, but the Hops bats wouldn’t stop. Buddy Kennedy singled and Dominic Canzone doubled to the left-center wall to make the score 5-0 Hops.
The Emeralds had chances to get on the board in the second and third, but they failed both times. Fortunately, they broke through in the fifth. Tyler Fitzgerald led off the inning with a walk followed by Labour who doubled to the left field corner to cut the lead to 5-1.
The Hops added another run in the sixth off of Sean Roby’s second throwing error of the game.
After muscling all but two hits in the first five innings, the Emerald bats caught fire in the sixth. A Heath Quinn double, Ismael Munguia single and Will Wilson walk loaded the bases, and forced a Hops pitching change. This ended Jarvis’ day, in which he went five innings while striking out four in a solid effort.
The Hops turned to Nick Snyder in relief but he failed to record an out. Roby greeted him with a long single off the left-center field wall to cut the lead in half at 6-3. Later in the inning with the bases loaded, Fitzgerald ripped a double off the right-center field wall to cut the lead to one.
Labour stepped up next and tied the game with a soft single to left, ending Snyder’s outing abruptly. Hops manager Vince Harrison turned the ball to Mailon Arroyo out of the bullpen, but the Hops weren’t out of the water yet. Tyler Flores sent a sacrifice fly to right to give the Emeralds the lead, but a walk and a three-run Ismael Munguia blast to right put the nail in the coffin.
The Emeralds sent 11 batters to the plate and exploded for nine runs in the sixth to make the score 10-6.
A two-out walk in the top of the seventh ended Avila’s day. Despite the shaky start, Avila was huge for the Emeralds with five and a third innings of work and four strikeouts in an outing that saw his ERA drop a whole run.
The next pitcher for the Emeralds, Solomon Bates, gave up a double in his first batter of work to cut the lead to 10-7.
With a runner on second in the top of the eighth, Hampton lined a single to left that went past the left fielder Quinn, allowing the run to score easily. With the score now 10-8, the Emeralds turned to their closer, John Russell, to help escape the rally.
Russell wiggled out of the eighth but ran into a little more trouble in the ninth. A walk, a single and a fielder’s choice allowed the Hops to squeak another run across, but not before lefty Chris Wright shut the door on the 10-9 victory. Wright has now struck out an unbelievable 36 in 15 2/3 innings this year between the Emeralds and the Low-A San Jose Giants.
The Emeralds move to 23-15 on the season, and 3-0 in the six-game series. With the Everett AquaSox losing their second in a row, the Emeralds climb back into first place in the High-A West by a half-game. They will look to keep it up Friday night against the Hops at 7:05 p.m. in Eugene.
