Hops Fall Short After Ninth Inning Rally

In the fourth game of the series, the Hillsboro Hops fell 4-2 to the Tri-City Dust Devils. The Hops have now dropped two straight after winning the first two games of the series. Ryan Smith threw an absolute gem for the Dust Devils, tossing six scoreless innings with nine strike outs.

Slade Cecconi got the start for the Hops and matched Smith pitch for pitch over the first five innings. The game was scoreless heading into the top of the sixth inning when Cecconi finally ran into trouble. Spencer Griffin led off with a triple and was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Kasser to make the score 1-0. Ceconni's night was over after finishing the sixth inning. The right-hander was dealt the loss despite only allowing one run on two hits.

Chad Sykes took over for Smith and threw a scoreless seventh inning and Kolton Ingram tossed a scoreless eighth. The Hops put together a rally in the bottom of the ninth against Zac Kristofak. Buddy Kennedy led off with a single, recording Hillsboro's third hit of the game. On his 22nd birthday, Blaze Alexander followed with a double to put runners on second and third. The Hops got on the board when Tristin English muscled an opposite field single to right field to drive in Kennedy and Alexander and brought the score to 4-2. Cam Coursey came into pinch run for English and advanced to second base on a defensive interference. However, that would be all the Hops were able to muster up as Nick Dalesandro grounded out to end the game.

Hillsboro (15-18) will look to regain control of the series against Tri-City (12-22) tomorrow at 7:05 pm. Catch all the action on Rip City Radio 620 AM with pregame coverage beginning at 6:50 pm.