Tri-City’s Offensive Onslaught Overwhelms Eugene
The runs came early and often for the Tri-City Dust Devils (27-25) Wednesday night, scoring ten runs in the first three innings on the way to a 10-2 win over the Eugene Emeralds (26-26) at Gesa Stadium. The Dust Devils, playing as the road team at their home field, plated
The runs came early and often for the Tri-City Dust Devils (27-25) Wednesday night, scoring ten runs in the first three innings on the way to a 10-2 win over the Eugene Emeralds (26-26) at Gesa Stadium.
The Dust Devils, playing as the road team at their home field, plated two runs in the top of the 1st inning to get things going. Tri-City took advantage of Emeralds starter Eric Silva (1-2) struggling to find the zone, scoring their first run on a bases-loaded walk drawn by DH Werner Blakely. Their second run came on an infield single by 3B Osmy Gregorio, scoring 1B Gabe Matthews for a 2-0 lead. Silva pitched just the one inning, with the Eugene bullpen shouldering the load the rest of the way.
The Emeralds tried to get a two-out rally going in the bottom of the 1st via a RF Victor Bericoto single and a walk drawn by 1B Logan Wyatt. Dust Devils starter Caden Dana got out of any possible trouble by inducing C Adrian Sugastey to pop out in foul territory down the right field line, where RF Alexander Ramirez made a difficult running catch for the third out.
The major damage in the game came from Tri-City in the top of the 2nd inning. All nine Dust Devil hitters got to the plate in the frame, and six of them scored. LF Joe Stewart legged out an infield single with one out, and grabbed his 15th stolen base of the season to get into scoring position at second. 2B Adrian Placencia then lined an opposite-field single to left, and Stewart came home for a 3-0 lead. Matthews followed with his second walk in as many innings, putting two on with one out.
SS Arol Vera then came up and crushed a line drive to right field that hit the wall inside the line for a double, scoring Placencia to make it 4-0. Blakely came back up and took a different route to a two-bagger, sending a high pop to right field that found a safe landing between two defenders while Blakely sprinted out of the box. Matthews scored on the RBI double, stretching the lead to 5-0 and putting Vera on third base. A wild pitch gave Vera ample time to score, making it 6-0, and Gregorio capped the inning with a high fly ball to left that left the yard for a two-run home run and an 8-0 Dust Devils lead through an inning-and-a-half.
Dana backed up the big inning with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 2nd, and his team put two more on the board in the 3rd when Placencia drew his second walk of the night and Matthews launched an opposite-field 2-run blast to left to give Tri-City a 10-0 lead in the 3rd. Though the Dust Devils did not score the rest of the game, the outburst of runs provided more than enough support for the win.
Tri-City reliever Houston Harding (2-0) took over for Dana in the 5th inning, where the young righty ran out of pitches two outs shy of what would have been his first High-A victory. Harding gave up a two-run home run to the first batter he faced, Eugene RF Victor Bericoto, but got five outs from there, four of them by strikeout, to get through the 6th.
Dust Devils relievers Jake Smith and Erik Martinez took it the rest of the way, with Smith going two scoreless innings and Martinez pitching a perfect bottom of the 9th to finish the ballgame.
Both Osmy Gregorio (3-4, HR, 3 RBI) and Arol Vera (3-5, 2B, RBI) had three-hit games for Tri-City, and CF D’Shawn Knowles (2-4) a multi-hit night. As well, Gabe Matthews (1-3, 2-R HR, 2 BB) and Adrian Placencia (1-3, RBI, 2 BB) both reached base and scored three times on the evening, helping the team to its second straight win.
The Dust Devils will go for three straight wins in game two of the six-game series with the Emeralds, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday night at Gesa Stadium. Right-hander Cole Percival (0-0, 3.00 ERA) gets the start for Tri-City, and lefty John Michael Bertrand (2-2, 3.86 ERA) the same for Eugene.
Broadcast coverage of the game begins with the pregame show at 6:10 p.m. both here and at the MiLB First Pitch app.
Tickets for this week’s games are available for $5 per game, including some sections of the lower boxes, and can be purchased both online and in-person at the Dust Devils main office during the day from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and at the box office before the game. As well, full season ticket holders receive their seats as part of their ticket package, and are asked to call the office at (509) 544-8789 to have tickets either placed in Will Call or delivered electronically.
The next homestand for the Dust Devils begins Tuesday, June 13, when they host the Everett AquaSox on both a Trivia and Coca-Cola Tuesday. Tickets for the Everett 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 dustdevilsbaseball.com, 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).