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Morreale Mows Down Hops In 3-1 Ems Victory

The big right-hander made quick work of the Hillsboro lineup over five innings while Sean Roby’s third homer of the season was the difference in a pitcher’s duel at PK Park
By Alex Stimson
May 15, 2021

After the Ems pitching staff posted a collective seventeen strikeouts the night prior, Friday night saw the Eugene Emeralds’ (7-3) arsenal of arms settle for a mere fifteen K’s as they handed the Hillsboro Hops (4-6) their second straight defeat, 3-1, at PK Park on Friday night. HOW IT HAPPENED:

After the Ems pitching staff posted a collective seventeen strikeouts the night prior, Friday night saw the Eugene Emeralds’ (7-3) arsenal of arms settle for a mere fifteen K’s as they handed the Hillsboro Hops (4-6) their second straight defeat, 3-1, at PK Park on Friday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED: Fresh off an 8-2 victory over the Hops on Thursday night, the Emeralds pitching staff once again showed supreme stuff on the mound, led by starting pitcher Nick Morreale.

Making his second start of the season and his first on the home turf of PK Park, Morreale was a menace to opposing batters, firing 5.0 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts while surrendering just two hits, no runs and no walks. The nine strikeouts from the former Georgetown Hoya were far and away a professional career-high for the second-year pro, beating his previous best mark of five back in 2019.

Morreale departed the game after five innings and staked to a two-run lead thanks to a two-run tater from Sean Roby, his third four-bagger of the season. Roby’s frozen rope of a blast came in the bottom of the fourth off Hillsboro starter and 2020 first rounder Bryce Jarvis, a laser shot to left that was hit so hard it may have gone through the wall had it not cleared it.

Morrealle gave way to Taylor Rashi who similarly stymied the Hillsboro lineup by firing 2.0 scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts.

Right-hander Ryan Walker pitched an eighth inning that saw Hillsboro cut the deficit to one, but the former Washington State Cougar left the tying run on second with an inning-ending strikeout to send the Emeralds back to the plate looking for some insurance.

In the home half, Will Wilson continued his campaign to utterly demoralize all opposing pitchers in the Northwest by capping a 3-for-4 night with an RBI single to left that scored potential future POTUS Simon Whiteman to restore the two-run advantage heading to the ninth.

Jose Marte entered from the ‘pen to pitch the ninth and ran into some trouble putting runners on first and second, but that proved no matter to the flame-throwing Marte who notched a pair of K’s while even hitting 100mph on the PK Park radar gun before inducing a soft groundout to Wilson at short to end the game and wrap a 3-1 victory for the Ems.

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PEAK PERFORMERS:

  • Nick Morreale – RHP: The 6’5 right-hander showcased the kind of stuff they sing songs about, recording two strikeouts in each of the game’s first four innings while carrying a perfect game into the fifth before Tristin English rudely singled with one out. Despite that, Morreale notched the first win and first overall decision of his career after garnering neither a win nor a loss in nine appearances (seven starts) during the 2019 season playing in Rookie ball.
  • Will Wilson – SS: What more can we say? This guy is real, real good. Through seven games played as an Emerald, Wilson has notched a hit in all seven while now finding himself second in the High-A West in batting average (.424), second in on-base percentage (.525), second in slugging (.818), second in OPS (1.343), and tied for first in hits (14).
  • Sean Roby – DH: Batting in the clean-up spot, Roby’s third homer of the season may have only apexed at approximately 30 feet but it also rocketed off the bat at approximately 4,759 MPH. Again, those are approximate numbers, but they can’t be far off. Roby ultimately went 2-for-3 at the plate, providing all the power the Emeralds offense would need with that one swing of the bat.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Ems and Hops face off again on Saturday night in the third game of a four-game series at PK Park. Limited tickets are available for the remainder of the season’s first homestand at EmeraldsBaseball.com.

You can watch the action live via MiLB.tv or you can listen live to all the action on 95.3FM The Score, via MiLB.com or on the MiLB app.

Information regarding tickets to Emeralds home games is available at www.EmeraldsBaseball.com or by calling (541) 342-5367.

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