Hops Lose Third One-Run Game of the Week to Tri-City 

Pasco, WA (May 16, 2025) – Entering the series against Tri-City this week, Hillsboro was 10-1 in one run games in 2025. The Hops would lose a one-run game on Tuesday and Thursday and unfortunately added another to the tally on Friday night at Gesa Stadium. The Dust Devils beat the Hops for the third time this week by one-run, today on a walk-off double by Ben Gobbel. Gobbel had three hits in the game, all doubles, as Tri-City won again by a score of 3-2. John West had the best start of his pro career, lasting seven innings, but it wasn’t enough for the Hops.

Austin Gordon’s last outing saw him allow seven hits and ten earned runs to Everett. He would follow that up with a great outing today against Hillsboro, pitching six innings and allowing just one run. In his last outing against the Hops he pitched six scoreless innings and again turned in a great performance, despite still having an ERA of 7.08 after the start.

Tri-City struck first against John West in the second inning when Ben Gobbel and Juan Flores hit back-to-back doubles. The Hops drew closer in the second inning on Jansel Luis’ first of three hits in the game, an RBI single that made it 2-1.

There were four straight innings with zeroes on the scoreboard for both teams, as both West and Gordon breezed through the middle frames. West pitched a career-high seven innings, allowing just the two runs while striking out four. Gordon turned in another six-inning performance, while allowing just one run without walking a batter.

Hillsboro put runners on first and second with none out in the sixth inning and didn’t score and then would end up stranding the tying runner at second base to end the seventh as well.

Carlos Espinosa allowed a single to Cristofer Torin with one out in the eighth, but then struck out Angel Ortiz. With Torin on first base and two outs, Druw Jones came up with his biggest hit as a Hop, a two-out double that tied the game.

Carlos Rey pitched a scoreless eighth and then after Hillsboro went one-two-three in the ninth, he came back out to try to send the game to extras. Rey walked Ryan Nicholson to start the ninth to give Tri-City the winning run on base. Then, he struck out the next two batters looking, to bring up Ben Gobbel and one out away from sending the game to extras. Gobbel who already had two doubles in the game, hit a weak fly ball to centerfield and Druw Jones made an unsuccessful diving attempt. The ball went under the glove of Jones and rolled to the wall, allowing Nicholson to score. The double was Gobbel’s third of the game and Tri-City’s third one-run win of the week.

Hillsboro had seven hits in the game, six singles and Jansel Luis leading the way with three of them.

Spokane lost to Eugene 7-1, so the Hops still lead the Northwest League by one game.

Hillsboro and Tri-City will play game five of the series tomorrow night at Gesa Stadium. First pitch is at 6:30 with the pregame show starting at 6:15 on Rip City Radio 620 AM.