Emeralds’ Roaring Twenties Leave Dust Devils in Great Depression
The Tri-City Dust Devils (22-28) found themselves overwhelmed by an onslaught of scoring Tuesday night at Gesa Stadium, where the Eugene Emeralds (27-23) scored early and often in a 20-5 win that opened the teams’ six-game series. The visitors scored their 20 runs on 20 hits, plating runs in all
The Tri-City Dust Devils (22-28) found themselves overwhelmed by an onslaught of scoring Tuesday night at Gesa Stadium, where the Eugene Emeralds (27-23) scored early and often in a 20-5 win that opened the teams’ six-game series.
The visitors scored their 20 runs on 20 hits, plating runs in all but two of their nine innings at the bat, and all nine Emeralds players in the lineup had at least one hit and scored a run. They also led wire-to-wire, scoring three runs in the top of the 1st inning off Tri-City starter Walbert Ureña (1-5) and adding five more in the 3rd to drive the right-hander out of the game.
The Dust Devils, meanwhile, answered Eugene’s early punch with a run in each of their first two tries. CF Werner Blakely drew a one-out walk in the bottom of the 1st and advanced to third on a pickoff throwing error by Emeralds starter Will Bednar. 1B Matt Coutney then grounded out to the right side, giving Blakely an easy path to score from third and make it a 3-1 game.
A free pass enabled Tri-City to add another run an inning later when LF Joe Stewart walked with one out. A wild pitch allowed Stewart to move up to second and to score easily on C Caleb Pendleton’s RBI double down the left field line that brough the Dust Devils within a run at 3-2.
That would end up as close as the home nine would get to tying the game or taking the lead, with Eugene’s 3rd inning five-spot giving them an 8-2 advantage. The Emeralds kept adding on from there, working through a total of five Tri-City pitchers to get to 3B/P Andy Blake. The infielder both pitched and recorded the final out of the top of the 9th, inducing a pop-up and then sprinting to the ball to make the inning-ending catch.
Newcomer SS Chad Stevens had a strong night at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and 2 RBI. Also, Matt Coutney singled in the 8th inning to push his on-base streak to 14 games and RF Jorge Ruiz added an RBI single in the 9th off Eugene lefty Hayden Wynja (2-3) to push across the final run of the night.
On the pitching side of things the team struggled with its collective control, walking 13 and hitting three batters to issue 16 free passes while striking out only seven. The team made no errors on defense, though, and did not allow a home run on a breezy night in the Tri-Cities.
The loss just counting for one game, the two teams return to the field at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night at Gesa Stadium, where it will be Disco with the Dust Devils Night presented by Goodwill Industries. Fans are encouraged to wear their best 70s gear and enjoy some dance music as all at Gesa Stadium are taken back to the disco era.
Right-hander Chris Clark (0-5, 5.52 ERA) gets the start for Tri-City and southpaw Jack Choate (1-1, 2.20 ERA) will counter for Eugene. Broadcast coverage begins with the pregame show at 6:10 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app.
Tickets for the Eugene series, including the upcoming Rooster Tails weekend, are on sale now with special ticket rates available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit the team’s official ticketing site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.