Pfaadt Fans 11, But Hops Fall At Eugene

One week after shutting out Vancouver on four hits, Hillsboro staring pitcher Brandon Pfaadt came one strikeout away from a team record, fanning 11 Eugene batters. However, the Hops (29-37) were unable to take advantage of 11 Emerald walks in a 5-4 loss at P.K. Park Wednesday.

Down 5-3 in the seventh, Dominic Canzone blasted a home run to right center field to pull Hillsboro within one. In the ninth, the Hops loaded the bases against Emeralds closer Chris Wright , butEduardo Diaz grounded into a game-ending double play as the Ems (39-28) evened the series at a game apiece.

Pfaadt (2-3), a 5th-round 2020 draft pick out of then-Division II Bellarmine University in his hometown of Louisville, opened his fifth Hillsboro start by fanning the Eugene side in the first. The Hops then gave him a 3-0 lead when Cam Coursey hit a two-run single and Jorge Barrosa followed with an RBI double in the top of the second. Diaz had opened the inning with a leadoff walk against Eugene starting pitcher Kai-Wei Teng, who walked five and fanned four over his three innings.

The Hops continued to accept charity throughout the game, earning at least one base on balls in every inning but the eighth, however, Diaz was the only one to come around to score. Meanwhile, Eugene swiftly answered Hillsboro's three-run inning with three runs of its own.

Sean Roby led off the bottom of the second with a base hit, before Pfaadt hit Tyler Fitzgerald with a pitch and walked back-to-back batters, forcing in a run. With bases loaded, a run already in and none out, the Ems were primed for a big inning, something they tormented the Hops with during a six-game series sweep back in June. But Pfaadt fanned the next two batters, brining leadoff man Ismael Munguia to the plate. The pesky centerfielder hit an inside-out squibber to 3B that squeaked between the legs of Tristin English for an error, allowing Fitzgerald and Ricardo Genoves to score, tying the game at 3-3.

The Ems went up 5-3 on leadoff solo home runs in the fourth by Genoves and the fifth by Brett Auerbach, Auerbach's second home run of the series. Tuesday night, he broke up Blake Walston's no-hitter with a leadoff homer in the seventh inning and the undrafted free agent from the University of Alabama has now clubbed five home runs and 17 RBI in just 15 games with the Ems, extending a hitting streak to seven games.

Canzone's blast extended his current hit streak to nine games, one off a season-high for the Hops. He would greet the tough lefty Wright with a base hit to lead off the ninth, before English earned a seven-pitch walk. In an obvious sacrifice situation, Leodany Perez, in the game after pinch-running for Andy Yerzy in the seventh, dropped a pretty good-looking bunt down the third base line. But Wright, a two-way standout at Bryant University before being drafted in the 12th round in 2019, showed he can do more than just save games with his pitching. The southpaw got off the mound in a flash and in one motion gloved the ball and flipped it to Sean Roby for the force on Canzone and third base. Blaze Alexander followed with a walk to load the bases with one out before Diaz hit a grounder that took Roby to the bag at third, starting a game-ending 5-3 double play.

Travis Perry (7-1) provided a bridge to the late innings for Eugene with three scoreless innings of relief, allowing one hit and three walks with three strikeouts to become the winningest pitcher in the High A West League.

Pfaadt allowed just four hits and two walks over six innings, with three of the five runs allowed earned. His 11 strikeouts were one short of a Hops record set in 2014 by Anderson Placido and matched in the 2015 South Division Series by that year's NWL Pitcher Of The Year Carlos Hernandez. Justin Lewis pitched two innings of scoreless relief to give the Hops a shot.

Hillsboro outhit Eugene 7-4 and issued just four walks compared to Eugene's 11, but the Hops were just 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position in falling to 7-13 against the Ems this season.

Slade Cecconi will try to right the ship tomorrow when the Hops and Emeralds meet in game three of the series. Pregame airtime is at 6:50 p.m. with the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. on Rip City Radio 620 AM.