The Eugene Emeralds lost to the Tri-City Dust Devils by a final score of 11-4. The Emeralds record now sits at 64-61 on the season and 30-29 in the 2nd half.
The Dust Devils jumped out to an early lead in tonight’s ballgame and never looked back. Joe Redfield got the scoring started on an RBI-Double to left field that scored Will McGillis. Joe Stewart then hit a sacrifice fly and Redfield scored on the play. Andy Blake topped it off with a single out to left field that scored Alexander Ramirez on the play.
In the 4th inning the Dust Devils added another 3 runs in the top of the 4th. Joe Redfield hit a home run out to right field for his first of the season. Will McGillis was on base for the home run. A couple of batters later Joe Stewart hit his 4th home run of the season out to left field and the Dust Devils held a 6-0 lead through the first 4 innings.
In the 8th inning Tri-City was able to add on 4 more runs. Andy Blake homered with Caleb Ketchup on base to get the inning started. Joe Stewart followed it up with an infield single and Myles Emmerson scored on the play. Cam Williams followed it up with a double to right field that scored Joe Redfield and sent Joe Stewart to 3rd base. Alexander Ramirez finished it off with a single that scored Stewart to give the Dust Devils their 11th and final run of the night.
In the bottom of the 8th inning the Emeralds were finally able to open things up and get on the scoreboard. Grant McCray ripped his 25th double of the season to score Zach Morgan. Damon Dues was able to advance into 3rd base on the play. The very next batter, Carter Howell, ripped his 6th home run this year out to left field for the 3-run home run. It was great to see the Emeralds get rolling late in the ballgame. While it wasn’t enough for the comeback, the hope is they can carry this offensive momentum into tomorrow night’s series finale.
Hayden Wynka got the start in tonight’s game. He pitched 3.2 innings and allowed 8 hits and 6 runs while walking 2 batters and striking out 2. Eric Silva came in for relief and threw 2 hitless innings while striking out 3 batters. Matt Mikulski pitched the next 2 innings and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits. He struck out 1 batter. Damon Dues closed out the game and pitched the final 1.1 innings while giving up 3 hits and 1 earned run. He didn’t walk anybody and struck out 1.
The Emeralds have a 3-2 series lead over the Dust Devils this week and they’ll look to close it out tomorrow night for their 5th series victory of the season. A win tomorrow night would guarantee that the Emeralds will head into the final week of the season with their playoff hopes still intact. A win tomorrow night would set it up so the Emeralds would have to either win 5 games or sweep the AquaSox next week in Everett. But for now, the Emeralds need to take care of business tomorrow night against the Dust Devils.
Left-handed pitcher Seth Corry is on the mound for the Emeralds in the series finale. First pitch is set for 4:05 P.M for the Emeralds regular season home finale.
