Medrano's bat powers Volcanoes to victory vs Capps, Dust Devils

KEIZER Ore, -- Opening Night was a strong win for the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and saw impressive performances on both sides of the game. The offense peppered twelve hits and scored four runs in total. While the pitching only surrendered three runs, two earned, and had eight strikeouts. The winning pitcher for the Volcanoes was Sidney Duprey who came in relief in the seventh inning and pitched two perfect frames while recording two strikeouts and only giving up one hit. On offense, the power came from Robinson Medrano, who hit a lead-off solo homerun in the fourth to give the Volcanoes a 2-1 lead, he would go on to go 2/3 with that one rbi. 
Stetson Woods got the Opening Night start for the Volcanoes after coming off a 2017 campaign that had him finish the year as the Northwest League Pitcher of the Year. Woods was solid in his season debut as he went 4.2 innings had two strikeouts and only surrended two runs. He was pulled in the fifth after giving up a double to Owen Miller and the power hitting Dwanya Williams-Sutton coming to the plate. Woods was relieved by Alejandro De La Rosa, who immediately got Williams-Sutton to fly out to center field. 
The offense got on the board to tie the game in the third when Ricardo Genoves scored Jose Layer from third on an error by the Tri-City shortstop, Owen Miller. This run was the answer the Volcanoes needed as they had just surrended a solo homerun in the top half to the Dust Devil centerfielder, Tre Carter. However, with no outs and runners on first and second, Trevor Abrams hit a fly ball to center field that was caught. Kyle McPherson tagged from second to third on the play, but Genoves was thrown out trying to move into scoring position at second. Then with two outs in the inning and a man on third, Diego Rincones grounded out to shortstop to strand the man at third. 
The Volcanoes added another in the fourth off the Medrano homerun, but then they went down 3-2 in the top half of the sixth after an errant throw from the catcher Rincones went off the third base runner and into left field. The Volcanoes would answer again in the bottom half of the inning as they scored on a Nico Giarratano sac fly to left field that scored Rincones. 
In the bottom of the seventh, the Dust Devils brought in Major League pitcher Carter Capps who has an awkward delivery and can reach speeds of up to 100 mph. He is on the Dust Devils currently rehabbing from an injury and normalizing his delivery. The Volcanoes were able to push across the eventual game winning run against him after Abrams 2-out double off the left field wall which was followed by Rincones 2-out single to score Abrams and take the lead. 
Duprey pitched another clean inning in the eighth where he picked up his two strikeouts and passed the ball onto Jesus Tona in the ninth. The 5'10 Venezuelan came in firing pitches past the Dust Devil hitters and picked up three strikeouts to close out the victory and seal the win for the Volcanoes. 
The Volcanoes are back again tomorrow to face the Dust Devils again in the second of five games for the series. Game time is scheduled for 6:35 P.M. 
(Photos courtesy of Ben Ammon @bja_photo)