Persistent Hops Even Series
PASCO, Wash. --- The Hillsboro Hops have looked like baseball's version of a West Coast offense, dinking and dunking their way through two games at Tri-City without ever hitting the home run ball or getting the explosive inning. Wednesday night's dinks plus dunks added up an 11-8 victory over the
PASCO, Wash. --- The Hillsboro Hops have looked like baseball's version of a West Coast offense, dinking and dunking their way through two games at Tri-City without ever hitting the home run ball or getting the explosive inning.
Wednesday night's dinks plus dunks added up an 11-8 victory over the Dust Devils (17-17) to even the six-game series at a game apiece.
Hillsboro (21-14) finally got an extra base hit with men on base when Ben McLaughlin doubled off the center field fence in the eighth inning, scoring Druw Jones and Junior Franco to give the Hops what looked like an insurmountable 11-4 lead. Yet Tri-City refused to wave the white flag.
In the ninth, Alexis Liebano came in for clean-up duty on the mound and instead got his clock cleaned, surrendering four runs on three home runs without recording an out. A well-rested Hayden Durke came on to right the ship, getting an unexpected save by striking out three straight batters to close out the game.
The Hops have put runners on base in all but three innings through the first two games of the series and put the leadoff runner on base a remarkable 12 times in the first 15 innings. After only plating two of seven leadoff baserunners in a disappointing 3-2 loss Tuesday, all five leadoff baserunners came around to score in Wednesday night's victory.
Cristofer Torin led the Hops' 13-hit attack, going 4-for-6 with a triple, two RBi and a run scored. Torin had hits in each of his first four trips to the plate, before striking out in his final two at bats, falling short of becoming only the seventh Hop to record five hits in a game.
Anderdson Rojas bounced back from Tuesday's disappointing finish by reaching base four times from the leadoff spot, going 2-for-4 with a triple, three runs and two bases on balls. Jansel Luis had five productive plate appearances, finishing 2-for-2 with two runs, two RBi's, two walks and his 12th stolen base of the season. Junior Franco drove in two runs and scored twice with two hits a walk and a sacrifice fly.
After only scoring one run in the first inning and loading the bases with one out, the Hops saw Tri-City grab an early lead with two first-inning runs as the first three Dust Devils reached base against righthander Casey Anderson (2-2).
Tri-City made it 3-1 after a Placencia RBI double plated Ben Gobbel in the third inning. But Hillsboro responded with runs in each of the next four innings to pull out to an 8-4 advantage. Luis and Torin recorded RBi singles to tie the score 3-3 in the third inning, before Torin's bases-loaded single gave Hillsboro the lead in the fourth. A baserunning miscue led to an out at the plate, preventing the Hops from a big inning. Rojas walked and scored on a passed ball to make it 5-3 Hops after four.
Ryan Costeiu (0-2) got roughed up in his second start for Tri-City, surrendering eight hits over 3 2/3 innings.
Anderson settled in and pitched scoreless ball into the sixth after the three early runs, departing after plunking Rio Foster and giving up a double to Ryan Nicholson. The Cedar City, Utah native allowed four earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and one base on balls.
Nate Savino came on to retire the next three batters, but Foster scored on a ground out to make it 8-4 Hops. Savino retired all six batters to face him with a pair of strikeouts and has yet to allow a run over five Hops appearances.
Run-scoring doubles by Jones and McLaughlin in the eighth off Sandy Gaston appeared to put the game out of reach, but Matt Coutney greeted Liebano with his second home run in as many nights, a shot over the left center field fence. After Juan Flores singled, back-to-back jacks by Capri Ortiz and Gobbel sliced the seven-run lead to three with none out in the ninth, setting up the save situation for Durke, who fanned Placencia, Anthony Scull and Foster on 12 pitches to nail down his second save of the year.
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