Offense Falters, Ems Lose 5-1

After amassing 14 hits in their last game, the Eugene Emeralds just muster just four hits and could not climb out of an early run due to a miscue in a -1 defeat at the hands of the Hillsboro Hops in-front of 3,704 at PK Park.

Brailyn Marquez (1-2), who took home his first victory of the season last time out, struggled to find the strike zone early. He walked two batters in the first three innings, with Ryan Dobson scoring in the third. After walking with one out, Dobson took off for second on a steal.
Marquez turned and fired to the bag in plenty of time, but the throw sailed into the outfield, allowing Dobson to move to third. One wild pitch later and the Hops (16-7) had a lead they would not relinquish.
Marquez lasted just one inning after that before coming out, finishing his night with four innings, four hits, and one earned run to go with two walks and four strikeouts.
Sean Barry worked the fifth and gave up just one hit while striking out one, giving way to Paul Richan in the sixth.
Richan's second time of the mound for the Ems (8-15) turned out to be much different than his first. Going two innings with five strikeouts in his first appearance, Richan could not find that magic again. He gave up three hits, including a lead-off homer to Andy Yerzy in the sixth and an RBI single to Dan Swain four batters later, giving the Hops a 3-0 lead.
The Ems bats came alive briefly in the bottom of the second inning when, with one out, they hit three straight singles started by Nelson Velazquez, then followed by Christopher Morel and Luis Diaz. Unfortunately for the Ems, they were all hit too softly, forcing the runners to go half way and not sprint to the next bag. After a mound visit, Hops pitcher Ryan Miller got a strikeout and a lineout to end the inning.
Eugene finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth, when Nico Hoerner smashed a two-out bomb over the right field wall to make it a 3-1 game.
The Hops added a run in the eighth and ninth to push it to a 5-1 game.
Dalton Geekie came on to pitch in the eighth, but left after throwing just two pitches due to an apparent right arm injury.
Sunday marks game 2 between these two teams with the Ems and Hops both donning throwback jerseys. Ryan Williams will get the start for the Ems while the Hops will send out Adrian Del Moral. First pitch is at 5:05 pm, with gates opening at 4 pm.