The Eugene Emeralds dropped game 2 against the Dust Devils by a final score of 5-0. It’s the 2nd straight night Tri-City has shut out Eugene. The Emeralds record sits at 49-49 on the season and 15-17 in the 2nd half.
The Emeralds dug themselves a hole early in the ballgame. Eric Silva got the starting nod and allowed the first run of the ballgame in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Werner Blakely had an RBI-single with 2-outs and scored the first run of the game. In the 4th inning is where things soured on the Emeralds quickly. Caleb Ketchup started the inning off with a single and Myles Emmerson was able to score Ketchup on a single of his own. The Emeralds then made the move to Matt Mikulski who inherited a tough situation. D’shawn Knowles doubled and scored a run. Joe Stewart followed it up a couple of batters later with a groundout that resulted in a run being scored for the Dust Devils. Both of those two runs were charged to Eric Silva. Steven Rivas was then able to reach base via error and eventually came home to score to give the Dust Devils the 5-0 lead.
Eric Silva got the loss in tonight’s matchup. He pitched 3 innings, giving up 7 hits, 1 walk and 4 earned runs. He did strike out 4 batters which was great to see. Matt Mikulski came in for relief of Silva and tossed 2 innings. He allowed 2 hits and 1 earned run. He struck out 2 batters and didn’t issue a walk which is a positive sign to see from Mikulski. William Kempner then got handed the ball and pitched 2 innings and allowed 2 hits and no runs. He didn’t issue a free pass and struck out 3 Dust Devil batters. Tanner Kiest pitched the 8th and gave up a hit and a walk, but he was able to strike out 2 batters to get out of the inning unscathed.
The Emeralds offense didn’t have much going for it all night. They had just 4 base runners all night, with all 4 being singles. They only had one runner in scoring position all night and were 0-1 with runners in scoring position. They struck out 13 times as a team after striking out 17 times last night. They have now been held scoreless in 18 consecutive innings against the Dust Devils. The Emeralds offense came into this series red-hot, but they’ve now been held in check. The Dust Devils pitching has been excellent, as they now have tossed 3 consecutive shutout wins. The Emeralds bats will need to find a way to get going in a big-way tomorrow night as they will look to avoid their 5th consecutive loss.
The Emeralds will roll out Reggie Crawford tomorrow night. Crawford, a 2022 1st round pick from UConn, has been excellent on the bump so far in his time with Eugene. Crawford has only pitched one inning in his first appearances with the Emeralds. He’s allowed just 1 earned run over those 4 starts. The talented two-way player still has yet to hit this season in Eugene, but he’ll look to keep it rolling on the bump tomorrow night.
Game 3 of the 6-game series is set for a 7:05 P.M first pitch tomorrow night.
