First Round TKO

On Wednesday afternoon, the Hillsboro Hops bounced back with a 10-2 victory over the Tri-City Dust Devils. The Hops' offense came out guns blazing with five runs in the first and never looked back. Slade Cecconi earned his fourth win of the season over six strong innings and Eduardo Diaz led the charge offensively with four RBIs.

After Cecconi retired the Dust Devils in order in the first, the Hops jumped all over Hector Yan in their half of the frame. Hillsboro caught a break when Jorge Barrosa reached second base on a fielding error by left fielder Francisco Del Valle . Yan walked Carson Kelly and Axel Andueza to load the bases for Diaz. Still with no one out, Diaz crushed the ball out to left center field for his first grand slam of the season. The Hops added a final run of the inning when Nick Dalesandro drove in Blaze Alexander to make the score 5-0. Yan was not able to record an out in his start before being replaced by Tyler Smith . The Hops also batted around the order in the first.

Tri-City brought in a run in the top of the second on a sacrifice fly by Keinner Piña . Hillsboro scored in their half of the inning after Smith drilled Tristin English in the helmet with the bases loaded to extend their lead to 6-1.

Cecconi pitched well the rest of the way, only allowing one more run over the next four innings. The Diamondbacks' 33rd overall pick in last year's draft finished after six innings with six strike outs while only allowing four hits and a walk.

The Hops' bats continued to pummel Dust Devils pitching in the later innings. In the bottom of the sixth with runners on the corners, Cam Coursey drove in Alexander on a sacrifice fly. In the eighth, Coursey drove in another run on a sac fly and Dalesandro kept a hot bat with a two-out RBI single to put the Hops up 10-2. Hillsboro finished with 11 hits, including multi-hit games by Andueza, Alexander, Dalesandro, and English. Diaz led the team in RBIs with four and delivered the games only homer.

Hillsboro (32-40) will face off against Tri-City (29-44) again tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. Catch all the action on Rip City Radio 620AM and www.RipCityRadio.com with the pregame coverage beginning at 6:50.