Dust Devils Down Emeralds for Second Straight Win
An early trio of runs got the Tri-City Dust Devils (11-17) on the front foot, and starter Walbert Ureña kept the pedal to the metal in a 6-1 win over the Eugene Emeralds (18-10) Wednesday night at PK Park. 3B Ben Gobbel got things going in the top of the
An early trio of runs got the Tri-City Dust Devils (11-17) on the front foot, and starter Walbert Ureña kept the pedal to the metal in a 6-1 win over the Eugene Emeralds (18-10) Wednesday night at PK Park.
3B Ben Gobbel got things going in the top of the 1st inning, taking a pitch from Eugene starter Manuel Mercedes (0-2) deep over the wall in left-center for his third home run of the season. The solo blast, two batters into the game, gave Tri-City a 1-0 lead. RF Jadiel Sanchez then doubled off the right field wall and 2B Shane Matheny, making his Tri-City debut, walked with two outs following a groundout to put runners on the corners.
Up stepped C Kevin Bruggeman, who lined the first pitch he saw over Emeralds LF Turner Hill and to the fence. Sanchez and Matheny both scored to push the lead out to 3-0 before the home side got their first at-bat.
Ureña (1-3), staked to the lead, pitched his best game of 2024 by throwing six scoreless innings for his first win of the year. The hard-throwing right-hander threw his fastball effectively but also worked in more of his off-speed repertoire, enabling him to strike out the side looking in the bottom of the 2nd inning.
The only major stress Ureña faced came in his last inning when a walk loaded the bases with two out. The righty fell behind Eugene DH Andrew Kachel 3-0, moving him a ball away from walking in the first run of the night, but battled back to induce a groundout and finish a scoreless quality start. The Dust Devils starter finished with a total of four hits given up and only a pair of walks, striking out five and handing it off to the bullpen.
The lead with which Ureña worked grew in the early innings. Ben Gobbel added a second RBI in the 2nd that when he singled to score CF Werner Blakely, who had reached via error, to make it 4-0. Two more runs crossed the plate in the 3rd after Shane Matheny drew a second walk and Kevin Bruggeman laid down a bunt single with one out. Matheny scored on an RBI ground rule double by DH Cam Williams, making his 2024 Tri-City debut, and SS Caleb Ketchup legged out a possible double play to bring in Bruggeman for a 6-0 lead.
The lone run for the Emeralds came on a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th by 2B Quinn McDaniel. Relievers Jared Southard and Dylan Phillips threw scoreless innings out of the pen, the latter getting the final three outs. The win both marked the first time this season that the Dust Devils have won the first two games of a series.
Tri-City and Eugene meet for game three of their six-game series at 7:05 p.m. Thursday night at PK Park. Right-hander Chris Clark (0-2, 3.09 ERA) will take the ball for the Dust Devils, countered by southpaw Seth Lonsway (1-1, 2.63 ERA) of the Emeralds.
Broadcast coverage of the game begins with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m, both here and on the MiLB app.
Tri-City returns home to Gesa Stadium for a six-game series with the Hillsboro Hops beginning next Tuesday, May 14. Tickets for the Hillsboro series are on sale now, with special ticket rates 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 the team’s official ticketing site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.