Hops drop game, series finale in extras
HILLSBORO, OR - In what was dubbed "Ferris Barley's Day Off," the Hillsboro Hops defense played hooky as well. In the rubber game of the five-game series between the Hops and Everett AquaSox. The home team committed four errors and one passed ball to drop an ugly 6-4 affair in ten innings.
Cody Reed started for the Hops, fresh off his second Northwest League Pitcher of the Week award in three weeks. The big left-hander from Alabama performed well, but some long counts and spoiled pitches prevented him from going deep into the game, which is something Reed has emphasized this season. At the end of his outing, he had posted five innings of one run ball, allowing just three hits while striking out six.
The lone run Everett hung on Reed came in the top of the second inning. Frogs catcher Johan Quevedo led off with a belted ground rule double, and moved to third on a single by Ryan Uhl. Luis Liberato followed with an RBI groundout. Reed would then lock in.
The problem for Reed wasn't the Everett lineup, but rather his counterpart on the mound. Frogs pitcher Lane Ratliff was game to compete with Reed, posting five shutout innings.
Everett would extend their lead to three in the top of the sixth thanks to some bad luck. Brody Greer entered for Hillsboro, and with one out, struck out Everett shortstop Erick Mejia. But the ball skittered by Hillsboro backstop Jose Queliz, allowing Mejia to reach first. Logan Taylor was hit by a pitch, and he and Mejia advanced to second and third on a sacrifice fly. Everett then pulled former Hillsboro manager J.R. House's favorite move. The runner on first broke for second, drawing the throw from Queliz, allowing the runner on third to score. Another two-out single by Uhl plated the third run.
Hillsboro fought back to tie the game with a run in the bottom of the sixth, and two more in the seventh. In the sixth, Hops shortstop Sergio Alcantara launched a solo shot to left field, his first homer as a Hop, and second of his professional career.
The Hops got it to 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh with a Jeff Smith bloop RBI single. Then, with the bases loaded, no outs, and Alcantara batting, he dribbled one to the shortstop Mejia. He flipped it to second baseman Jordan Cowan double clutched on the exchange, trying to turn two, but fired to first. Alcantara appeared to beat the throw handily, but in what can best be described as a controversial call, base umpire Jesse Gonzalez called him out. The tying run scored, but Gonzalez' call left skipper Shelley Duncan and hitting coach Javier Colina incensed.
The teams traded zeroes until the top of the tenth when the Hillsboro defense began to crack. With two outs, Mejia singled. He stole second base and Queliz's throw sailed into center, allowing Mejia to get to third. Logan Taylor followed with a routine ground ball to third base which was promptly thrown away by Smith at third base. Mejia would score and the inning would continue.
Corey Simpson then came up and throttled a ball deep to left to push the score to 6-3. All said, two errors allowed the three runs to score and put Hillsboro in a deficit from which they couldn't recover.
The Hops would scrape one back in the bottom half of the inning, but not enough.
The boys are off to Boise now for three games in Idaho. First pitch is at 6:15. Catch pregame radio on Rip City Radio 620 AM and at www.ripcityradio.com at 5:45 PM.
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