By Jack Lazarus

It’s finally April — which means Emeralds baseball is back in Eugene! 

On a rainy Oregon day, the baseball reflected the same attitude. Friday’s contest was characterized by weak contact and a costly error that abruptly ended the game. 

The Emeralds’ ability to finally drive home their lone run in the bottom of the ninth gave them their first win of the season in dramatic fashion. Onil Perez gave PK Park its only play to cheer about in the end, which sent the fans home happy. 

The win belonged to Eugene reliever RHP Cam Cotter and the loss was credited to Tri-City’s RHP Camden Minacci after he gave up the game’s sole run. 

LHP Jack Choate, a third year pro, started on the bump for Eugene, and struggled to power himself past batters. Choate let up a hit against the second hitter of the contest, but fanned two in the opening frame to lead the Ems to a positive start. 

RHP Joel Hurtado got the start for Tri-City on opening day, and waved two batters in the first. Hurtado found success early with his fastball, as the Emeralds had no answer for the impressive speeds. 

Shortstop Diego Velasquez singled to right field on Hurtado’s first pitch of the game. Eugene failed to build off that early, as it battled to string together positive at-bats. 

In the bottom of the second, Matt Higgins came up to the plate with two on and no outs, but lined to the diving first baseman, who then tagged the bag to make it a double-play. The incredible play made by Tri-City’s Matt Coutney squashed Eugene’s quest to build momentum. 

Both pitchers were throwing strikes early, so there was a lot of contact, but nothing that strong. Choate, especially, was able to work strong at-bats and force hitters into weak contact and infield ground-outs. 

The Emeralds could not convert their first opportunity with RISP, but after a Quinn McDaniel two-out double in the bottom of the third, they had another chance. Scott Bandura’s weak chop right back to Hurtado closed the third – another runner left stranded for the Emeralds. 

Choate was pulled after 4.0 flawless innings, only allowing two hits with three punch-outs, but he had reached his pitch count for the night. 

Eugene brought in RHP Dylan Cumming, who dealt with the first three batters easily in a 1-2-3 fifth inning. 

Even though he gave up five hits, Hurtado managed to strand three runners and keep the game scoreless in his five inning outing. He was replaced in the bottom of the sixth by LHP Dylan Phillips. 

In the bottom of the sixth, Eugene stranded another, as balls were put into play, but the only strong contact of the inning came from a single from McDaniel. 

Through six, the Emeralds appeared far more capable of scoring than did the Dust Devils. The Ems continued to strand RISP, which kept the Dust Devils in the game. 

Tri-City did not have a baserunner from the third inning until the seventh. The streak was broken by Coutney, and the Dust Devils started to show more life. 

Phillips was replaced by righty Jared Southard, who had no trouble getting his first three outs in the bottom of the seventh. 

The Emeralds brought Cotter for Cumming in the top of the eighth, who then sat down his first three batters, striking out the latter two. 

It became a duel of bullpens down the stretch, each testing the other and seeing who would make the first mistake. 

The bottom of the eighth saw some contact – producing some excitement – but nothing farther than the warning track. Through eight innings, there was not much separating the two squads. 

Going into the ninth, neither team converted on RISP, and the most notable moments in the game were all outs. It was a seemingly never ending battle between the two pitching staffs. 

The Dust Devils brought in Minacci for the ninth, who gave up a single to center to Scott Bandura on the first at-bat of the inning.

Out of nowhere, with two outs and Bandura on first, Perez sent a blast into center field. 

It initially seemed like the center fielder Werner Blakely would be able to track it down, but he lost it to the Eugene night — sending Bandura all the way home from first for an incredible walk-off win.

The Ems return to action for the second game of the series Saturday at 6:05 p.m. 

Eugene is expected to start LHP Hayden Wynja while Tri-City will trot out RHP Jorge Marcheco.