The Eugene Emeralds took the field at Avista Stadium on Friday, looking to shake off the sting of Thursday night’s 10-run eighth inning in a brutal 14-11 loss to the Spokane Indians.
But they were met with another bullpen collapse, this time a seven-run sixth inning that led them to lose their second straight, 11-4, evening the series at two games apiece.
Nick Avila started the game for the Emeralds, after last week’s disastrous attempt at having Solomon Bates open for him. The Indians struck first, as Michael Toglia hit a two-out double in the bottom of the first to put them ahead 1-0.
The Emeralds went without a hit for the first four innings, while Avila settled in to strike out seven through the first three as it remained a 1-0 game.
Availa gave up back-to-back singles to start the bottom of the fourth. He recorded the next two outs and looked to be navigating out of the jam, but then surrendered a two-run single to extend the Emeralds’ deficit to 3-0 while the offense still didn’t have a hit.
In the fifth, a hit batsman and a walk put two on for the Emeralds. Robert Emery singled with one out for the team’s first hit of the night, but Heath Quinn was thrown out at the plate to keep the Emeralds off the board.
Toglia struck again in the fifth, blasting a solo homer off of Avila to make it 4-0.
Avila, despite giving up four runs in five innings, struck out nine in a solid effort overall.
Ricardo Genoves finally struck some life into the Emeralds in the sixth, hitting a two-run homer to cut the deficit in half. It was a 458-foot shot for his first homer as an Emerald.
Tyler Schimpf recorded the first two outs of the bottom of the sixth and everything appeared to be going fine. But after back-to-back singles, two wild pitches allowed a run to score. A two-run double, two singles and a homer quickly broke it open to 11-2. All of a sudden, it became a seven-run inning, all with two outs.
It was the Emeralds’ second bullpen collapse in as many nights.
They clawed their way back in the eighth, as Armani Smith hit an RBI double and Genoves hit an RBI single. But it was too little, too late as they fell for the second straight night, 11-4.
With the Emeralds having lost two straight, the six-game series is now even at 2-2. The Emeralds will look to get back on track on Saturday with first pitch slated for 6:30 p.m.
