Three’s Company: Big Early Innings Power Dust Devils Past Canadians

PASCO – Back-to-back three-run innings got the Tri-City Dust Devils (26-26) off and running Wednesday night, giving them enough to outlast a hard-charging Vancouver Canadians (25-28) by a score of 7-5 at Gesa Stadium and return the team to the .500 mark.

For the second time this year fans at the corner of Burden Boulevard and Homerun Road were treating to dueling leadoff home runs, with Tri-City 2B Adrian Placencia taking Vancouver starter Jackson Wentworth (1-3) deep in the bottom of the 1^st inning after Canadians CF Victor Arias had done the same to Dust Devils starter Keythel Key (2-3) on the top side. Key got three outs after the homer to limit the damage, while Tri-City continued to hit Wentworth hard. 3B Ben Gobbel doubled to the warning track and off the wall following Placencia, and 1B Ryan Nicholson then blasted a ball out to right-center for a two-run homer that gave the Dust Devils a 3-1 lead. The home nine then loaded the bases with no one out in the 2^nd inning and the top three delivered again. Placencia first legged out an RBI fielder’s choice to stretch the lead to 4-1, followed by an RBI double by Gobbel and a sacrifice fly by Nicholson to make it a 6-1 Tri-City advantage through two innings. Two innings later Nicholson came through a third time by lacing an RBI single to right field to score Placencia, who had been hit by a pitch, and push the lead to 7-1.

It was hold-on time from there, with Key giving up five runs in five-plus innings with five strikeouts. Relievers Jorge Marcheco and Dylan Phillips both threw two scoreless innings to finish out the win, with Phillips grabbing his first save of 2025. With the win Tri-City kept pace with league-leading Hillsboro, staying 1.5 games out of first place in the Northwest League First Half playoff race with 14 games left to complete.

DUST DEVILS NOTES

-Ryan Nicholson racked up four RBI on the night, his highest single-game total as a Dust Devil and the second highest RBI day of his professional career. The lefty slugger drove in five runs, including a grand slam, in his second professional game last August as a member of the Inland Empire 66ers. Nicholson also now has 11 multi-RBI games in 2025, the most of anyone hitting for Tri-City.

-The Dust Devils had 11 hits on the night, led by Ben Gobbel’s 3-for-4 night. Gobbel had two doubles as part of his night, with his third three-hit game of the season matching RF Randy De Jesus for the most on the team this season.

-Tri-City reliever Dylan Phillips earned the save via his fifth consecutive scoreless outing, his fourth for the Dust Devils. Phillips also threw three scoreless innings for Triple-A Salt Lake on May 25^th against Omaha, part of a now seven-inning scoreless streak.

A THURSDAY NIGHT GLOW UP

Tri-City and Vancouver clash in game three of their six-game series at 6:30 p.m. Thursday night at Gesa Stadium, where it will be Glow Night presented by Let’s Glow Mini Golf. Fans are encouraged to wear neon colors as part of the evening’s events.

Right-hander Chris Cortez (1-1, 3.08 ERA) gets the ball for the Dust Devils, facing right-hander Edinson Batista (2-1, 7.04 ERA) of the Canadians. Free broadcast coverage, available audio-only at dustdevilsbaseball.com and the MiLB app and with video in the MiLB Zone of Bally Sports Live, begins with the Dust Devils Pregame Show at 6:10 p.m.

6:30 p.m. first pitches have been scheduled through Saturday night for the series, with the Sunday afternoon contest scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. matinee.

For tickets to games in the Vancouver series and for all 2025 Dust Devils home games, visit the official ticket site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.