The Eugene Emeralds defeated the Hillsboro Hops by a final score of 13-1. The Emeralds bats came alive in a big way tonight and they scored a run in 7 consecutive innings and tallied 12 total base hits. The Emeralds move to 42-43 on the season and 8-11 in the 2nd half.
It was a scoreless 1st frame for both ball clubs but after that the Emeralds bats would come alive in a big way. The 2nd inning things would get interesting for Eugene. After the first two batters were retired, Aeverson Arteaga swung and missed on a pitch but it got past the catcher and he was able to reach base. That brought up Thomas Gavello and he hit a moonshot to the shortstop who was out in center field. At the last moment Juan Corniel lost it in the light and misplayed it and it dropped in the outfield. Arteaga hustled into 3rd on the play and Gavello was able to reach 2nd. The next batter, Brett Auerbach, hit a ground ball at the pitcher Shane Giesting for what should’ve ended the inning. Giesting airmalled the ball over the 1st baseman’s head and both runs came home to score. The Emeralds were able to reach base via a dropped third strike and two consecutive errors to give them the 2-0 lead after the 2nd.
In the 3rd inning the Emeralds kept the scoring going. Jared Dupere doubled with one-out to reach base. After a strikeout and a walk that brought up Matt Higgins who doubled down the line to plate Dupere and give the Ems the 3-0 lead. It was the 4th inning where the Emeralds really got the hit parade started. Brett Auerbach hit a two-out double and was able to swipe third base. Grant McCray then got a double of his own and scored Auerbach on the play. After a groundout the Emeralds wanted to keep the inning going and Jared Dupere was able to battle at the plate and draw a walk. That brought up the designated hitter Sean Roby who proceeded to launch a 472-foot moonshot out to right field to give the Emeralds the 7-0 lead. It was a monster home run by Roby but his night was still far from over.
In the 5th inning the Emeralds plated another run. Aeverson Arteaga was able to score and Auerbach and McCray both were able to draw walks to load up the bases for Carter Howell. A wild pitch from Giesting allowed Arteaga to score and make the game 8-0. The Emeralds starter tonight was Nick Sinacola and he was as close to perfect as you can be. In 5 innings of work, he allowed 2 hits, 1 walk and struck out 4 while not allowing a single run. It was great to see Sinacola get things going in such a big way in this ballgame.
The Emeralds decided they wanted to keep on scoring runs and added 3 more in the 6th. Sean Roby, who had homered in his last plate appearance, stepped into the box and delivered a solo home run to lead the inning off. Roby definitely found his power tonight at Ron Tonkin field tonight. The next batter, Adrian Sugastey, doubled down the line. That brought Matt Higgins to the plate who then proceeded to launch a 2-run home run out to left field to make the score 11-0 in the 6th inning. The Emeralds bats were pouring it on against the Hops.
It wouldn’t stop there as the Emeralds scored runs in the 7th and the 8th inning as well. The 7th inning run was an Adrian Sugastey RBI where he grounded out but Jared Dupere was able to come home and score on the play. In the 8th inning the Emeralds got the bases loaded once again and Carter Howell hit into a groundout but Aeverson Arteaga was able to come home and score after he led the inning off by getting hit by a pitch.
The Emeralds gave up 1-run in the bottom of the 7th on a Gary Mattis Jr 2-out RBI-Single that scored Josh Day on the play. Seth Lonsway came in for relief of the starter Sinacola and did his part on the bump. He pitched 4 innings and allowed 2 hits, 2 walks, 1 earned run and struck out 3 batters. It was great to see Lonsway look so comfortable on the bump and it was even better to see him go the distance in this one. It gave him a chance to face a ton of batters all while keeping the bullpen fully rested for later in the series.
The Emeralds now move to 10-3 on the season against the Hops and they’ll look to keep adding wins to that total all week. The Emeralds are sitting at 8-11 to start the 2nd half and while there’s a lot of games left to be played, if the bats are able to catch fire like this the Emeralds could rattle off a ton of wins to catapult themselves up in the standings.
They’ll be back in action tomorrow night against the Hops with a first pitch set for 7:05 P.M. Hayden Birdsong will be on the bump for the Emeralds.
