Costeiu Great, Del Valle Homers, but Dust Devils Fall in 10

Despite great starting pitching and an early lead the Tri-City Dust Devils (18-18) were defeated by the Vancouver Canadians (18-17) in 10 innings by a score of 4-3 Sunday afternoon at Nat Bailey Stadium.

Starter Ryan Costeiu pitched five innings of lights-out ball for Tri-City, giving up no runs and only one hit. He struck out eight, including five in a row over the 4th and 5th innings. The outing lowered Costeiu’s ERA to 0.98 for the season.

On offense, the Dust Devils grabbed the lead three pitches into the ballgame. Jordyn Adams doubled deep to left field on the first pitch, and Mike Peabody took the second pitch he saw to right for an RBI single, giving Tri-City a 1-0 lead.

In the 5th innings, the Dust Devils doubled the lead, taking advantage of a Vancouver throwing error. After Christian Molfetta was hit by a pitch, and Adams drew a walk, a wide throw on a Peabody infield single allowed Molfetta to score from third, making it 2-0.

An inning later, Francisco Del Valle cranked his first home run of 2022 over the double fence in right center field, giving Tri-City a 3-0 lead.

The Dust Devils bullpen, though great so far this season, could not hold the lead this time around. The Canadians scored twice in the 7th to get within a run, and then plated a run on a sacrifice fly in the 9th to tie the ballgame at 3-3.

In the 10th, Tri-City could not score Edwin Yon from second as the runner to begin the inning. In the bottom of the extra inning, Vancouver’s Davis Schneider laced a double just past the glove of a diving Kenyon Yovan down the left field line to score the winning run and walk off the Dust Devils for the second straight day.

Emilker Guzman (1-3) took the loss for Tri-City, who had the misfortune of being on the short end of both walk-offs over the weekend. The Canadians’ Alex Nolan (1-0) got the win in relief, with Vancouver taking the series four games to two.

Their visit to Canada complete, the Dust Devils head south for the Willamette River valley to take on the Eugene Emeralds in a six-game set beginning Tuesday at 7:35 p.m at PK Park, with the King Beverage Budweiser Pregame Show beginning at 7:20 p.m. You can listen to it, and all Tri-City Dust Devils games, at dustdevilsbaseball.com and on the MiLB First Pitch app.

Following the series the Dust Devils return home to Gesa Stadium Tuesday, May 31 to start a six-game set with the Hillsboro Hops. It’s a Coca-Cola Tuesday, with 21 oz. Coca-Cola products available for $2.

Single-game tickets for the Hops series and all games are on sale now. Ticket packages are also available, and start at just $99. And 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 or call 509-544-8789.