Ems Suffer First Loss At PK Park In 2021

The Ems scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth on Saturday night. Only problem was, though, that they needed at least six more.

The Eugene Emeralds (7-4) suffered their first loss at PK Park this season on Saturday, falling to the Hillsboro Hops (5-6) by a final of 11-5.

HOW IT HAPPENED: The night started just as the prior two did: with lots and lots of strikeouts from the Emeralds starting pitcher.

Saturday night’s Ems starter Conner Nurse looked exceptional on the mound from the first batter he faced, striking out the side in the first before doing the same again two innings later in the third.

Nurse notched two more K’s in the fourth to push his total on the evening to eight, and he tied his career-high with nine by punching out Buddy Kennedy for the first out of the fifth.

However, Nurse would not make it out of that fifth inning as the Hops followed Kennedy’s K by hanging four runs on the young right-hander, capped by an opposite field blast by Tra Holmes to chase Nurse from the game with the Emeralds trailing, 4-0.

In came Jasier Herrera from the bullpen looking to keep the Ems deficit at four, but the Hops had no such plans on their itinerary as they plated five more runs in the frame to take a commanding 9-0 lead into the home half of the fifth.

Two innings later, the Hops added two more runs when part-time 80’s action hero Blaze Alexander belted a two-run blast to left that stretched Hillsboro’s lead to a seemingly insurmountable eleven-run margin.

The Emeralds mustered only two hits over the game’s first eight innings, but the bats broke out from their slumber in the ninth and they did so in a big, big way, starting with a leadoff homer from 2020 first rounder Patrick Bailey.

His former NC State collegiate teammate and fellow former first rounder Will Wilson followed with a solo blast of his own – his second homer in three games – to cut the Ems’ deficit back to single digits.

A nine-run deficit with only three outs to work with may seem impossible to overcome, sure, but the Emeralds batting order clearly didn’t get that memo as Logan Wyatt followed Bailey and Wilson’s back-to-back jacks with a walk, Sean Roby then singled, and Franklin Labour loaded the bases by reaching first on a catcher’s interference call involving Hops backstop Axel Andueza.

Two batters later, after a passed ball scored another Ems run and Ismael Munguia lined out sharply to center, Jacob Gonzalez came through with a single to center that scored Roby and Labour to make it 11-5.

That was as close as the Ems would get, though, as Hops first baseman Buddy Kennedy made a remarkable over-the-shoulder grab in foul territory to retire Whiteman and then Bailey flew out to cap a weird, wild final inning.

PEAK PERFORMERS:

• Conner Nurse – RHP: Nurse may have been unable to make it through the fifth, but he was nothing short of stellar in the game’s first four frames and ultimately finished with a final line of 4.1 IP, four hits, four earned runs, one walk and nine strikeouts.

• Will Wilson – SS: Wilson is becoming a regular in this part of the game recaps, and for good reason. His hit streak to start the season reached nine on Saturday night thanks to his ninth inning solo blast, his third of the season.

• Tyler Schimpf – RHP: Though the game seemed well out of reach at the time, Schimpf was solid on the mound as Eugene’s final pitcher of the night, firing 2.0 innings with no hits, runs or walks allowed while striking out a pair of Hillsboro batters.

• Strikeouts – Eugene Pitching Staff: Tonight may not have gone quite as the Ems pitching staff had hoped, but they continued to pile up the K’s against Hillsboro as four Ems pitchers combined to post fourteen strikeouts. In the three games against the Hops at PK Park this series, the Emeralds pitching staff has tallied forty-six strikeouts in 27.0 innings.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Ems and Hops face off in the finale of the four-game set at PK Park on Sunday at 7:05pm. Sunday will mark the 2021 season’s first time that the Ems will transform into Los Monarcas de Eugene as part of Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión. Limited tickets are available at EmeraldsBaseball.com.

You can watch the action live via MiLB.tv or you can listen live to all the action on 95.3FM The Score, via MiLB.com or on the MiLB app.

Information regarding tickets to Emeralds home games is available at www.EmeraldsBaseball.com or by calling (541) 342-5367.

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