A fairly even ball game became suddenly lopsided against the Monarcas De Eugene, as the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes scored five runs in the top of the eighth to put the game out of reach as the Ems fell 6-2 in front of 2,442 at PK Park.
A fairly even ball game became suddenly lopsided against the Monarcas De Eugene, as the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes scored five runs in the top of the eighth to put the game out of reach as the Ems fell 6-2 in front of 2,442 at PK Park.
It turned sour quickly for the Monarcas (11-21) in the eighth as Yan De La Cruz (0-1) could not get out of the inning with the game tied at 1-1. It started when De La Cruz walked Nico Giarratano and allowed a Jose Layer single to start the inning.
After a fly out, De La Cruz hit Diego Rincones and Rincones had to exit the game, bringing in Dalton Combs, loading the bases for Joey Bart. Bart, the second overall pick, fell behind in the count but eventually smacked a 1-2 pitch to right center, scoring a pair and made it a 3-1 game.
David Villar then hit a sacrifice fly to score Combs and move Bart to third. A ground ball by Aaron Bond looked like it would end the inning, but a bad throw allowed Bart to score. A stolen base and a single to score Bond by Wander Franco made it a 6-1.
Before that, it looked like the game would be headed to extras as a combination of Derek Casey and Eury Ramos shut the Volcanoes (16-16) down for seven innings. Casey got the start and gave up a run on two hits, walking and striking out one. Ramos had his best outing of the year, going five innings for the first time and gave up just four hits and struck out three.
The Monarcas were down early, but tied it in third when Gustavo Polanco singled to lead off the inning. A fly out moved Polanco to second, and a ground out moved him to third with two outs. Jonathan Sierra singled on a 1-2 pitch up the middle and scored Polanco, making it a 1-1 game at the time.
Eugene also plated a run in the ninth when Luke Reynolds doubled with one out, moved to third on a ground and scored on a wild pitch.
The rubber match between these two teams is Wednesday at 7:05pm. The Ems will send out Reilly Thompson, while Salem-Keizer will send Gregory Santos. Tickets are still available for the game, and can be purchased at emeraldsbaseball.com.
