Hops Lose Lead In 8th Inning Walk Of Shame

An eventful day came to an ugly end for the Hillsboro Hops Tuesday night.

After the team bus was at the center of a major crime scene on I-5, the Hillsboro bullpen let Eugene loot six runs in the eighth inning to steal a 6-2 victory in the opening game of a six-game series at P.K. Park.

Leading 2-0 after seven innings following a second straight sterling start by 6-foot-8 right hander Billy Corcoran, two Hillsboro relievers combined to walk seven Emeralds batters in the eighth. A throwing error ended a six-run frame as the Ems ripped the lead away without the benefit of a base hit.

By contrast, Eugene relievers Nick Morreale and Ben Madison (2-0) combined to retire the final 13 Hops in a row as the first-place Ems improved to 13-3 on the season.

The Hops team bus was at the center of a major police chase on Interstate 5 that ended with the object of the pursuit--a double-murder and kidnapping suspect from Washington--crashing his car before committing suicide on the roadside just yards away as armed policemen swarmed to the scene. The bus actually ran over a spike strip and was struck in the rear by another car that collided with the perpetrator's vehicle. The accident caused an hours-long shutdown of the major West Coast north-south freeway snarling traffic into and out of town and delayed the team's arrival at the ballpark.

Hillsboro (6-10) wasted no time in getting into game focus, plating a run in the first inning on a leadoff Andrew Pintar single and a 400-foot RBI single that one-hopped the center field fence by Neyfy Castillo, a 2022 Hop sent down from AA Amarillo to jump-start a struggling bat.

Castillo reached base in his first three trips to the plate, knocking in Hillsboro's second run with a 5th-inning RBI infield single to third base to score Kevin Sim.

Billy Corcoran, fresh off a nine-strikeout performance against Tri-City a week ago, tossed another gem. limiting the Northwest League's top hitting team to two hits and no runs with seven strikeouts, a walk and a hit batter over six innings. Corcoran even made a couple of fine defensive plays, reaching across his body to glove a quick comebacker from Onil Perez to lead off the second, and later racing to first to complete a beautifully turned 3-6-1 double play with runners at the corners to end the fourth inning.

After Armando Vasquez pitched a scoreless seventh, Peniel Otano (1-1) took over on the hill in the eighth inning. After retiring the first batter, Otano walked the next three before giving way to Junior Cerda. Cerda set down Andrew Kachel on a fly out to left, then his command left. Four walks later, Eugene had a two-run lead. Sim threw wildly to first on a Justin Bench grounder to third to allow two more Ems to score and that was that.

The seven walks in one inning set a new Hop record and was the most free passes in an inning in the NWL since 2013.

Madison, who pitched for Eugene last year and faced the Hops in a Salem-Keizer uniform in 2019, fanned four of the six batters he faced. Jack Choate started on the mound for Eugene, allowing one run on four hits over four innings with five strikeouts, a walk and a hit batter.

The teams return to the field at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday night for game two of the series. Live radio coverage begins at 6:50 p.m. on Rip City Radio 620 AM.