Ems End Hops Season With Playoff Sweep
The Eugene Emeralds got all the offense they needed in the sixth inning; all of their offense period.Without a base runner through five, the Ems scored three times in the sixth and shut down the Hops the rest of the way for a shocking 3-2 win and two-game playoff series
The Eugene Emeralds got all the offense they needed in the sixth inning; all of their offense period.
Without a base runner through five, the Ems scored three times in the sixth and shut down the Hops the rest of the way for a shocking 3-2 win and two-game playoff series sweep at Ron Tonkin Field Thursday night. For the third year in a row, the Emeralds ended the Hops' season in the divisional playoff round and will move to the Championship Series, where they lost to Vancouver last year and beat Everett in 2016.
The sixth inning was most unkind to the Hillsboro Hops in this postseason as the Emeralds had scored the go-ahead runs in the same frame the previous night, also a 3-2 Hops loss. It was downright cruel Thursday night as the visiting team had no hits and but one base runner in the other eight innings.
Hillsboro took a 1-0 lead in the first when Jake McCarthy led off the game with a bloop double to left off
The Hops had opportunities to score in the third and fifth inning, putting the first two runners aboard in the third and the leadoff man on base in the fifth, but could not come up with a timely hit against Carrera (1-0), the Northwest League's ERA leader at 2.58.
Meanwhile, Hops' starting pitcher Matt Mercer, a fifth-round draft pick from the University Of Oregon, was dominant though four innings, striking out six and retiring all 12 batters he faced. Jackson Goddard (0-1), drafted two rounds ahead of Mercer by the Diamondbacks out of the University of Kansas, retired the side in order in the fifth and got
Still, Goddard was nearly out of the inning when
L.T. Tolbert led off the bottom of the inning with a bunt single and moved to second when Shannon worked a full count walk after falling behind 0-2. That was it for Carrera, who gave way to right hander
As Moths and
All four of the Emeralds hits and all three of their runs came in the sixth. They had only one base runner outside of that inning when
The Hops had seven hits, but were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and finished 1-for-19 in the series.
The Hops finished the regular season with a franchise record win total and the Northwest League's best record at 51-25. The Emeralds had the worst record in the league at 31-45, but by finishing with the second-best second-half division record at 17-21, 10 games behind Hillsboro, earned the playoff bid under the new league rules. Hillsboro is now 1-6 in the postseason against Eugene the last three seasons with six consecutive losses.
The Ems await the winner of the North Division series between Everett and Spokane, which moved to a deciding third game after the AquaSox beat the Indians 8-3 in Spokane Thursday night.