Conway continues cruising on hitless night

The process has been long and challenging for Joshua Conway to get his chance to pitch professionally on a regular basis. Now that it's finally here, he's making the most of it.

The Cubs prospect turned in his second consecutive hitless outing Friday night, pitching three scoreless innings in his fourth start of the year, but it wasn't enough as Short-Season Boise fell to visiting Eugene, 7-1.

Conway arrived in the Cubs system as a fourth-round Draft pick out of Coastal Carolina University in 2012, and he did not see the mound in a Minor League game until June 16. The 23-year-old right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in 2012, followed by surgery to repair a fracture in his elbow. The lengthy recovery process detoured through two successive seasons of rehab, but the results have been more than encouraging in his first Minor League campaign.

"I'm just trying to go out there and attack the hitters, stick to the plan and ultimately throw strikes," Conway said. "I'm trying to throw more than just the fastball for a strike. With great defense and great hitting behind me, it makes it easier as well."

Conway, who went three hitless innings a week ago against Hillsboro, has yet to pitch past the third this year but is building his arm strength and adjusting to working in live action again.

"The first part of it, I was just trying to get the feel back for the mound and game speed," he said. "The game speed was a big thing. In rehab, everything's kind of restricted and everything's set in a path for you. Once you get the game speed back up and get back into the groove of things, you just attack the hitters and make your pitch and really understand the game."

Over his first two innings, Conway faced the minimum, allowing one baserunner when Eugene leadoff man Trea Turner reached on a throwing error by second baseman Alex Tomasovich in the opening frame. Despite seeing another Emerald reach on another error by Tomasovich to open the third, he pitched around consecutive two-out walks to close his night.

"It's kind of a roller coaster," Conway said of his long road back. "It's up and down. You have your days. For the most part, I just tried to stay really positive through everything. Obviously, some days you can't do that. You see other guys having success and moving up, playing. At first, it kind of stinks when you're sitting back and watching guys playing. I learned some patience having two surgeries back-to-back almost. It was a big step for me to understand patience."

Through his first 11 2/3 professional innings, Conway has allowed two runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out seven.

"Sometimes I think I can probably overanalyze a little bit too much," he said. "Once you get back into game situations, the stuff you've learned from being out is a really big help. When something happens in a game, you have to realize that you have more opportunities. It puts things in perspective a little bit and you understand that you're grateful that you're still able to play the game."

The Hawks got their starter a run when Giuseppe Papaccio drove in Jesse Hodges with a sacrifice fly.

Eugene rallied against the Hawks bullpen, however. The Emeralds scored three times in the sixth to take the lead and got two-run homers from Marcus Davis and Franchy Cordero in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to pull away.

Boise's Ryan McNeil (0-3) was charged with three runs on five hits and a walk in two innings and took the loss.

Emeralds starter Griffin Russell allowed a run on three hits while fanning five and walking two in four innings. Danny Wissmann (1-0) followed with a scoreless frame o pick up his first win.