A Hop's Day Night As Hillsboro Beat(le)s Eugene

On Beatles Night at Eugene's P.K. Park, the Hillsboro Hops came together and Arizona Diamondbacks' prospect Blake Walston definitely had a day in the life.

The 20-year-old, 6-5 southpaw took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and allowed just two hits over eight as the Hops (29-36) held on for a 3-2 victory over the Eugene Emeralds (38-28) in the first game of a six-game series.

The win ended a seven-game losing streak at the home of the Oregon Ducks, where Hillsboro had won just once in ten previous tries this season. The victory also pulls the Hops to within 8 1/2 games of the second-place Emeralds in the High-A West standings.

Down 3-1 in the ninth, the Emeralds rallied off Hillsboro closer Yaramil Hiraldo , who retired the first two batters before Armani Smith lined a single to center and Sean Robyblooped a double down the left field line, putting the tying runs in scoring position. Tyler Fitzgeraldfollowed with a ground ball through the hole at short for a base hit, scoring Smith. Roby tried to score on the play from second base but was gunned down on a one-hop strike from left fielder Eduardo Diaz to catcher Nick Dalesandro for the final out of the game.

Walston (1-1) was brilliant, retiring the first 15 batters of the game before Franklin Labour drew a leadoff walk in the sixth. After retiring the next three batters, Walston's no-hitter and shutout was shattered in one seventh inning swing when Eugene second baseman Brett Auerbach hit a leadoff home run to left center. The 2019 first-round draft pick was not rattled, retiring six of the final seven batters he faced. The only other Eugene base runner came with two outs in the eighth when Hops' first baseman Andy Yerzy lost a pop-up above the lights that dropped fair behind the bag.

In his best and longest outing as a professional, the former two-sport standout at New Hanover High School in Wilmington, NC struck out 11 and walked only one, throwing 98 pitches over eight complete innings. It was his first victory in seven starts in a Hillsboro uniform (including the end of his first pro season in 2019) and his third pro win.

Hillsboro got all the runs it would need in the fifth inning, stringing together three extra-base hits and nearly getting a fourth. Cam Coursey belted a double off the right center field wall on the fly and Jorge Barrosa followed with a one-hop double just a few feet to the left of Coursey's, his second two-bagger of the game. Dominic Canzone stepped up and unloaded on a Conner Nurse (1-6) pitch, hitting a shot well up the roof of the Sargent Player Development Area roof overhanging the Eugene bullpen to make it 3-0 Hillsboro. With two outs in the inning, Yerzy hit a deep blast to left center field that looked to be on its way out, but Smith leapt at the wall and brought it down for the final out of the inning.

That was looking like a very important play when Fitzgerald poked his grounder into left field in the ninth, but for the second time in less than a week, Diaz threw out a runner at the plate. On Wednesday, Diaz preserved Brandon Pfaadt's shutout by nailing Rafael Lantigua at the dish following a Tanner Morris base hit in the sixth inning of Hillsboro's 2-0 win over the Canadians. The Venezuelan outfielder also continues to work his way out of an extended batting slump, collecting a hit for the fifth consecutive game.

Canzone has now hit in eight straight games and is batting .316 over his last 21 games played. Hiraldo is 4-for-4 in save opportunities since coming off the injured list.

Pfaadt will try to follow-up his sensational outing last week as he takes the hill against Eugene's Kai-Wei Teng, a top-20 prospect in the Giants' organization. Time of the game is 7:05 p.m. Wednesday night with pre-game coverage beginning at 6:50 p.m. on Rip City Radio 620 AM.