Hops Even Series WIth Continued Power Surge
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. -- It was Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, longtime skipper of the Baltimore Orioles, who said, "The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers," Well, the Hops definitely got two of those Wednesday night and it was enough to get past the
SPOKANE VALLEY, Wash. -- It was Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver, longtime skipper of the Baltimore Orioles, who said, "The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three-run homers,"
Well, the Hops definitely got two of those Wednesday night and it was enough to get past the Spokane Indians 8-5. Evening the six-game series at a game apiece, the Hops (28-25) regained sole possession of first place in the ever-so-tight Northwest League first-half standings.
After four scoreless innings, Hillsboro put multiple runs on the board in three consecutive frames getting three-run homers from Gavin Logan in the sixth and Jackson Feltner in the seventh to back Casey Anderson's best start of the season.
The righty out of Utah Valley U. came into the night with a season ERA near 8, but limited the Indians to an unearned run over 5 1/3 innings, fanning a season-high seven with three walks and four hits allowed in his finest performance since joining the Hops in mid-April. Two of Anderson's three wins have come against Spokane (27-26), including his High-A debut on April 17.
Meanwhile, after a month-long power drought (seven home runs in May tied for last in all of minor league baseball), the Hops have homered in three consecutive games, with two home runs in each of the first two games of this critical series.
Down 8-1 following Feltner's seventh inning smash off Alan Perdomo, Spokane rallied with two outs and none on in the bottom half of the inning, plating four runs off Hillsboro reliever Joangel Gonzalez. After Charlie Condon rifled a hot grounder off the leg of Gonzalez for an RBI infield hit, Braylen Wimmer followed with a three-run shot to the caboose in right and the Indians were right back in the picture.
But Nate Savino and Sam Knowlton held the lead over the final 2 1/3 innings, the lefty Savino pitching around a leadoff Andy Perez double in the eighth for his tenth scoreless effort in 11 Hops appearances. Knowlton bounced back from a walkoff extra-inning loss Sunday at Vancouver to mow down the side with two strikeouts in the ninth, hitting 102 on the radar gun as he notched his first High-A save.
Lebarron Johnson, Jr., (3-3), a 5th rounder out of the University of Texas in 2024, suffered the loss in his second High-A start. After handcuffing the Hops over four scoreless innings with a half dozen strikeouts, the hard-throwing right hander issued back-to-back walks to Jean Walters and Logan in the fifth. After an Anderdson Rojas sacrifice bunt, leadoff batter Cristofer Torin scorched a single to right, scoring Walters. Logan was tagged out on a close play at the plate after catcher Cole Messina fielded E.J. Andrews' throw on the fourth bounce. With two outs, Ryan Waldschmidt followed with a bounder into left with Torin just getting around a Messina tag at the plate with a beautiful headfirst slide.
Davison Palermo, making his NWL-leading 21st appearance of the season, got the final out in the fifth, but walked Angel Ortiz and surrendered a single to Druw Jones to open the seventh inning. One out later, Logan launched an oppo shot to left on the first pitch to him that just cleared the fence for his first homer of the season.
The only blemish on Anderson's ledger was an unearned run. Tiring in the sixth, Anderson (3-4) walked Condon, then surrendered a one-out free pass to Cole Messina. Giving way to Gonzalez, an Andy Perez grounder to second should have ended the inning with a double play. The Hops had turned twin-killings behind Anderson to end both the fourth and fifth innings, but after forcing out Messina at second, Torin's relay to first was wide of the mark, allowing Condon to score to make it 5-1.
Feltner wore the golden sombrero with four strikeouts on the night, but the one at bat in which he didn't fan was golden as the cleanup hitter launched his fifth home run of the season. Perdomo gave up a leadoff single to Waldschmidt and a walk to Ben McLaughlin before Feltner blasted off.
Torin and Waldchmidt each had two-hit nights for the Hops, who overcame three errors on the night. McLaughlin went 0-for-2 on the night, but drew three bases on balls, his first free passes in a week where he has gone 3-for-27 at the plate.
Jared Thomas, the NWL leader in batting, had a pair of hits, including a double off Anderson on his first pitch of the game. Anderson would then strike out the next three Indians batters. One night after the top four in the order tattooed Hops pitching, the combination of Thomas-Condon-Wimmer-Messina went a combined 1-for-10 with five strikeouts against Anderson.
With the win, Hillsboro now leads Spokane by a game, with Everett and Tri-City moving into a third-place tie, 1 1/2 games back after wins over Eugene and Vancouver respectively. The Emeralds fall two games back of the Hops with Vancouver still very much in the frame, sitting in last place, but just three games out of the league lead with 13 games remaining before the first-half cut-off.
Tune in for game three of the series, starting with the pregame show at 6:20 p.m., first pitch at 6:35 on Rip City Radio 620 AM.
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