After going on the road to win four of five games against the Everett Aquasox, the Eugene Emeralds came home to defeat the Hillsboro Hops 5-2 at PK Park Saturday night.
Jason Morozowski kicked off the night for the Hops in the top of the first inning with a solo home run to left field off Emeralds starting pitcher Jesus Castillo in the second at-bat of the game. That was about all that went wrong for Castillo, who struck out 10 in 5.2 innings, giving up two runs on four hits in the victory. He improved his record to 2-2 for the season.
Hops starting pitcher Jefferson Mejia struggled to find the strike zone early, walking the first two batters in the bottom of the first inning. This set up Chris Pieters to score two runs with a deep triple to center field to put the Ems up 2-1.
The top of the second inning was bizarre for Castillo, who was called for a balk not once, but twice.
“We have to work that, especially with men on second,” Eugene manager Jesus Feliciano said. “That’s part of the game; it’s a learning process.”
Castillo also recorded three strikeouts in the half inning because of a single and a walk. Despite this, the Hops did not plate a run.
Eugene kept the pressure on Mejia with an RBI single from Yeiler Peguero in the bottom of the second inning. The Emeralds saw four Hops players get on base throughout the inning but were held to just the one run. After a quiet third inning where both pitchers recorded three quick outs, right fielder Robert Garcia added to the Emeralds lead in the fourth inning with an RBI double to bring in Trent Giambrone and make it 4-1. Following a fly out, Mejia’s night came to an end. He gave up four runs on four hits in 3.1 innings and took the loss for the night dropping his record to 2-2.
The only batter that seemed to give Castillo trouble was Morozowski who, in addition to his first inning home run, hit a triple in the top of the sixth. He eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Alexis Olmeda to bring the Hops within two runs.
The Hops relievers were a strikeout machine in relief of Mejia. Max Duval and Jordan Watson struck out nine in 3.1 innings of work. However, the Hops could never take advantage on offense. The Emeralds were able to score on reliever Tommy Eveld when Robert Garcia added an insurance run with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to reach the game’s final score. Jared Cheek picked up the two inning save to seal the win.
The Emeralds will look to clinch the three game series against the Hops Sunday night at 7:35 p.m. at PK Park.