G66: Boise dominates Hillsboro to get back into the race, 5-1

[Empty Body]

Hillsboro, OR: The Boise Hawks took a statement win over the Hillsboro Hops from Ron Tonkin Field on Wednesday night.
With a 5-1 victory in the first of three games against Hillsboro this week, the Hawks continue their 15 game road trip and start the Hillsboro stop with a bang. This is the 3rd leg of the two week trip that has featured Salem-Keizer, Eugene, Hillsboro, and upcoming with Vancouver.
The Hawks got off to a hot start with three runs scored in the first two innings. Danny Edgeworth picked up his team leading 41 RBI on the year with a sac-fly in the first. Then, Hidekel Gonzalez drove in the eventual game-winning run in the 2nd on a single that scored J.B. Moss.
With the early lead, the Hawks also received a great night from starter Ryan Luna. After a tough loss in Salem-Keizer five days before, Luna was looking to rebound. He started out the first 4.2 innings of his night with no hits allowed and a shutout. Luna finished his night with six complete innings with just one run allowed and six strikeouts. He earned his third win of the year.
Taking the loss tonight for Hillsboro was starter Tyler Keele, who now drops to 5-5. Keele allowed four of the five Boise runs in the game, including Bret Boswell's solo home run in the 6th inning. With the homer, Boswell ties the league lead with teammate Daniel Jipping. Each of them have 11. Boswell continues his impressive rookie campaign now with 11 home runs and 41 RBI.
Moises Ceja and Mike Bunal shut the door on the win for Boise with three scoreless innings after Luna departed. Overall, the Hawks finished the night with 10 strikeouts as a whole. Hillsboro was never able to build any momentum, even with their run in the 6th off of Luna.
With the win, Boise comes within a game of Hillsboro in the 2nd half standings and also the overall standings. The Hawks can make the playoffs in one of two ways. The first of which is they can win the 2nd half. The second is if Hillsboro wins the 2nd half, they would be 1st and 2nd half champions. Thus, the next playoff team would come down to overall winning percentage on the season. Currently, the Hawks are just a game back of Eugene overall. So they would have to leapfrog Eugene if they would want to clinch that way.
Either way, Boise responded well after losing the final two games in Eugene. With tonight's 5-1 win, they will look to come back with momentum tomorrow in game two of the series. Left hander Nick Kennedy will take the ball for the Hawks with the first pitch time set for 8:05 p.m. MT.