Biery helps Volcanoes get even

Drew Biery proved his value to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes again on Tuesday night.

With runs and hits at a premium in the Northwest League Finals, Biery smacked a solo homer in the fourth inning to send the Volcanoes on their way to a 2-0 victory over the Tri-City Dust Devils that evened the best-of-5 series at 1-1.

Salem-Keizer was still looking for its first run of the series when Biery got a hanging breaking ball from Dust Devils starter Wes Musick on a full count and deposited it over the left-field fence.

"Biggest swing of the two games for us," Volcanoes manager Tom Trebelhorn said. "We hadn't done it at the dish and that put us up, 1-0.

Biery was named Northwest League MVP at the end of August after hitting .326 with six homers and 48 RBIs. He had a three-homer game against Yakima on July 25 but had gone deep only twice since.

"He's a gap guy, a doubles guy, and he'll hit a few home runs," Trebelhorn said. "I think he's just a high-contact line drive hitter. He's got enough speed to get two bases and enough power to reach the fence with the ball."

Chris Gloor (1-0) made the lead stand, limiting Tri-City to three hits while striking out six over 6 1/3 innings. The Giants' 17th-round pick in the 2009 Draft allowed only one Dust Devil to reach second base until Kent Matthes doubled with one out in the seventh.

"He was the best he's pitched all year," Trebelhorn said. "He's pretty much a fly-ball pitcher, which is why we decided to go with him in Game 2. This is a terrific pitchers' park, probably the best in the league. I think he had nine fly balls to only four ground balls."

Matthes took third when Joseph Sanders grounded out against reliever Kyle Vazquez but was stranded when David Quinowski retired pinch-hitter Bo Bowman -- who ranked fifth in the league in batting and RBIs during the season -- on a flare to shortstop.

Salem-Keizer took advantage of a walk and a hit batter in the ninth, adding an insurance run on Juan Martinez's RBI single.

Fourth-round pick Jason Stoffel worked around a walk in the bottom of the ninth, fanning two to record the save and send the Volcanoes back home, needing two wins to secure their third championship in four years.

"To be able to come back after being down, 1-0, and win, yeah, this is a much easier bus ride at 1-1 than it would be at 0-2," Trebelhorn said. "Hopefully, we can go home and take advantage of that."