Late Tri-City Fight Back Comes Up a Run Short
Another late rally again demonstrated the fighting spirit of the Tri-City Dust Devils (2-9) Wednesday night, but the Hillsboro Hops (5-6) held the visitors off enough to take a 3-2 victory at Hillsboro Ballpark. Tri-City’s late charge came in the top of the 8th inning where the Dust Devils, trailing
Another late rally again demonstrated the fighting spirit of the Tri-City Dust Devils (2-9) Wednesday night, but the Hillsboro Hops (5-6) held the visitors off enough to take a 3-2 victory at Hillsboro Ballpark.
Tri-City’s late charge came in the top of the 8th inning where the Dust Devils, trailing 3-0, put together a two-out rally and took advantage of a Hillsboro error. SS Denzer Guzman initially extended the inning with a hustle double to right field, his third hit of the night.
RF Jadiel Sanchez then hit a grounder to the right side of the infield that deflected off the glove of Hops 2B Manny Peña and into shallow right field. Guzman, running the whole way, scored to make it a 3-1 game.
That brought 1B Matt Coutney to the plate, who looped a single to right-center that moved Sanchez up to second. CF Werner Blakely then lined a ball into left-center for an RBI double that scored Sanchez and brought Tri-City within a run at 3-2. The double also moved the potential tying runs into scoring position, with Coutney at third and Blakely at second.
DH Joe Stewart would come up, having doubled earlier in the game, but Hops reliever Gerardo Gutierrez struck him out to end the threat and maintain the Hillsboro lead. The Dust Devils would then threaten in the 9th after LF Jorge Ruiz walked to lead off the inning. A sacrifice bunt by C Ronaldo Flores moved Ruiz to second but Gutierrez would get the next two out to get his first save and preserve the win for Hops starter Spencer Giesting (1-1).
Joel Hurtado (0-1) got the loss for Tri-City, despite giving up only two runs on four hits in five innings of work. The righty had times of waywardness, walking five, but struck out seven and kept his team in the game for a third straight outing to start 2024.
The offense put together eight hits, led by strong nights at the plate from Denzer Guzman (3-4, 2 2B) and Werner Blakely (2-3, 2 2B, BB). Jorge Ruiz singled and reached base twice.
On the mound, relievers Dylan Phillips and Willian Suarez threw scoreless innings to keep the game close.
Game three of six between the Dust Devils and Hops takes place at 6:35 p.m. Thursday night at Hillsboro Ballpark, with right-hander Jorge Marcheco (0-1, 6.52 ERA) set to start for Tri-City and left-hander Avery Short (0-1, 3.38 ERA) getting the nod for Hillsboro.
Broadcast coverage will begin with the pregame show at 6:15 p.m. Thursday night, both here and on the MiLB app.
After the series the Dust Devils will return home for a two-week homestand starting Tuesday, April 23, against the Everett AquaSox. Tickets for the homestand 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.