Bunters Are People Too: Viñeros Lay It Down, Walk It Off

A walk-off RBI bunt single by 2B Osmy Gregorio of the Viñeros de Tri-City (14-15) ended a wild ballgame and gave the home nine a 7-6 win over the Eugene Emeralds (16-13) Thursday night at Gesa Stadium.

Gregorio’s winning bunt, laid down with two outs in the bottom of the 9^th inning on a pitch from Emeralds reliever Hunter Dula (1-1), was one of four bunt singles by the Viñeros in the ballgame, all of which rolled down the third base line. Tri-City 3B Werner Blakely, whose fly ball leading off the 9^th was lost in the lights and landed safely for a leadoff single, raced home from third to score the game-winning run, giving his team its first walk-off win of the season.

The game did not start out a small ball exhibition. Eugene put up four runs in the top of the 1^st inning, most of which came in on a three-run home run by 1B Victor Bericoto over the left-center field wall.

The visitors’ big lead would not last long. The Viñeros would answer with three runs in similar fashion: a three-run homer by their 1B, Gabe Matthews. Matthews’ mash, his third home run of the season, was a moonshot, flying over the batter’s eye in center field. It scored both Blakely and SS Arol Vera, who had drawn walks to lead off the bottom of the 1^st inning and made it a 4-3 game through an inning.

Tri-City would begin to put its bunting skills on display in the bottom of the 2^nd inning. RF D’Shawn Knowles led off the frame with a line drive triple to the right-center field gap, putting an early potential tying run 90 feet away. C Gustavo Campero came up with one out and sent a squeeze bunt down the line. Knowles, seeing Emeralds starter Nick Sinacola headed to field it, hesitated halfway down the line but restarted in time to score, tying the game at 4-4.

An eerily similar situation would unfold in the bottom of the 4^th. This time, Gregorio led off with a triple, also to right-center field. Campero came up again, this time with two out, and once more laid down a bunt, catching the Eugene infield off-guard and scoring Gregorio to give the Viñeros a 5-4 lead.

Tri-City starter Connor Van Scoyoc, in the meantime, recovered well after his rough 1^st inning, throwing four no-hit innings to get through five with the lead. Van Scoyoc walked one and hit a batter, otherwise retiring 12 of the final 14 Emeralds he faced.

The lead held to the 7^th inning when Eugene again utilized the longball to go back in front. 2B Jimmy Glowenke singled off Viñeros reliever Nick Mondak to lead off the inning. CF Grant McCray came up and homered just left of the center field batter’s eye, a two-run blast that gave the Emeralds a 6-5 lead.

Again, that lead would be short-lived, with Tri-City answering in the 7^th with a run to tie the game. Vera blooped a single to center to get aboard, moving to second base with two out on a wild pitch. DH Adrian Placencia then stung a line drive double to center, plating Vera to tie the game at 6-6.

Viñeros reliever Emilker Guzman (2-1) worked the 8^th and 9^th innings, facing the minimum and striking out two. Tri-City loaded the bases with no one out in the 8^th, including a bunt single from Knowles, but Dula recovered to strike out three in a row to end the inning and keep Eugene tied.

He struck out two more in the 9^th, including Gabe Matthews with two outs, but strike three bounced away from Emeralds C Max Wright, allowing Matthews to reach and Blakely to go from first to third. That brought up Gregorio, who dropped one down one more time to send the Viñeros faithful home happy.

D’Shawn Knowles led Tri-City at the plate, going 3-4 and coming up a home run short of the cycle as one of four Viñeros with multi-hit games. Gregorio’s winner gave him a 2-4 night, Placencia went 2-5 and Campero 2-3 with a walk.

Game four of the series between Tri-City and Eugene takes place at 6:30 p.m. Friday night at Gesa Stadium, a Family Feast Night and School Night presented by Pahlisch Homes. Hot dogs, 12 oz. Coke products, ice cream sandwiches, bags of chips and Laffy Taffy ropes are all available for $2 throughout the game.

Righty Caden Dana (0-1, 8.00 ERA) will get the start for the Dust Devils, and lefty Carson Whisenhunt (0-0, 1.13 ERA) will go for the Emeralds. Broadcast coverage begins at 6:10 p.m. with the pregame show both here and at the MiLB First Pitch app.

Tickets for Friday night,** the weekend and the full homestand are on sale, including a Mother’s Day matinee Sunday and next week’s series with Vancouver. Also, special ticket rates are available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit [dustdevilsbaseball.com**](http://dustdevilsbaseball.com/tickets/)), call the team office at (509) 544-8789, or visit the team office (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on game nights, or Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. otherwise).