By: Joe Krasnowski
EUGENE, OR – By the sixth, there were whispers, in the seventh, there was a buzz. The eighth came along and the stadium was alive with noise.
In the ninth, you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone inside P.K. Park on a seemingly pedestrian Wednesday night knew what was at stake.
With two down in the ninth the nerves turned to pure euphoria. Dylan Rock’s flare of a fly-ball was corralled by Scott Bandura who squeezed his mit and threw up his arms in celebration. The entirety of the Ems dugout congregated near the pitcher’s mound in a crazed mob.
The Eugene Emeralds had just thrown a combined no-hitter.
Dylan Cumming, Nick Sinacola and Seth Corry each threw three innings apiece. The trio had varying levels of dominance but one thing remained the same — the hit total.
It was the Ems’s first no-hitter since July 4 of 2023 — and the first in MiLB this year.
With none of the previous games at P.K Park featuring homers, it’s only right Scott Bandura opened the scoring with a bang. Despite falling down two strikes early in the count, Bandura battled and on the seventh pitch of the at-bat launched a hanging curveball out to right.
Bandura’s homer — and hit — would be all the Emeralds would need. The four insurance runs wouldn’t hurt, however.
The early bomb was a harbinger for the rest of Chris McElvain’s lackluster outing. The Vancouver starter allowed three runs over his four innings of work, walking one and allowing five hits.
Five more than the Emerald’s pitching staff would.
A one-out walk by Andrew Kachel followed by a seeing-eye single from Diego Velasquez put runners on the corners for Quinn McDaniel. But before McDaniel — who lined out — could make contact, Velasquez was thrown out at second, the ensuing throw brought home Kachel to double the lead.
Entering Wednesday with a 1.13 ERA over nine innings pitched, Dylan Cumming had a short but downright dominant outing for the Ems. The right-hander mowed through the Canadians’ lineup facing one batter over the minimum in his three innings of work.
A two-out walk in the third was Cumming’s only baserunner allowed. His day was done after three scoreless innings and four strikeouts.
Nick Sinacola entered in relief of Cumming, firing a scoreless fourth as Vancouver’s offense struggled mightily in the early going.
Sinacola worked in the low 90’s but mixed pitches well, featuring a devastating slider to keep C’s batters off-balance.
McElvain retired the first two batters in the fourth before a center-cut fastball to Matt Higgins was lined out to right for his first bomb of the year. The next two batters reached base via singles, but McElvain induced a pop-out to limit the damage — for now.
McElvain allowed a lead-off walk to Kachel before his day was done. Kachel stole second, advanced to third via a sac fly, and was brought in by a one-out McDaniel single, extending Eugene’s lead to four in the fifth.
Sinacola continued to throw up zeros and threw three scoreless innings of relief. The right-hander sat in the low 90’s but mixed pitches well, striking out four.
Justin Wishikowski scored via a Quinn McDaniel ground-out in the seventh, scratching across another run for the Emeralds who took a 5-0 lead into the final two innings of play.
Corry got the win — and the mob surrounding him at the end of the game — after tossing the C’s in the seventh and eighth innings he induced a fly-out to begin the ninth.
The ensuing strikeout followed by an emphatic “k-strut” meant the southpaw was feeling it with one out to go. The punch-out brought Rock up as the only man dividing Eugene and history.
Corry’s 1-0 delivery was flared between second and right field, the blooper spelled trouble off the bat.
Bandura had it the whole way.
The Eugene Emeralds are the High-A affiliate of Major League Baseball’s San Francisco Giants. The Eugene Emeralds are dedicated to providing the best in family entertainment and creating a fun, safe environment for everyone to enjoy watching a baseball game. For more information, please visit our website at www.EmeraldsBaseball.com or call the Emeralds front office at 541-342-5367. • Emeraldsbaseball.com • Facebook.com/EugeneEmeraldsfanpage • Twitter.com/EugeneEmeralds
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