Emeralds closer Adam Cimber jogged out of the bullpen in the 8th inning with a 4-run lead and runners on the corner. Standard stuff for a reliable closer like Cimber, however his performance was anything but ordinary. Cimber allowed a bases clearing double to Tri-City third baseman Michael Benjamin in the 8th that decreased the Eugene lead to one. Cimber eventually escaped the inning.

Faced with the decision of sending his wounded closer back out on the mound or calling on a different reliever, Emeralds’ manager Jim Gabella decided to keep the ball in the hands of his closer. Cimber came out of the dugout for the 9th and ultimately shutdown the Dust Devils line up giving the Ems’ a much needed one run victory. The final score was 4-3.

While the offense was lighting up the scoreboard in the latter part of the game, the beginning was dominated by the two pitching staffs.

Despite earning the loss on the night, Dust Devils starting pitcher Tyler Anderson pitched extremely well. Anderson tossed six innings giving up three un-earned runs in credit to three early Dust Devils errors.

Eugene starting pitcher, and Northwest all-star Erik Schoenrock, pitched well scattering three hits over three innings pitched to keep the Dust Devils from accumulating any offense attack. After Schoenrock departed, Gabella sent out Kyle Lloyd who dominated over the course of the next four innings allowing only a single hit. The tandem of Schoenrock and Lloyd kept Tri-City off balance for the first seven innings.

For the second night in a row, the matchup between Eugene and Tri-City was anything but clean. The two teams have combined for eight errors in the first two games of the series. With advantageous offenses and decrepit defenses dominating the course of the first two meetings, the rest of the series might come down to who can master the fundamentals and play a clean baseball game.

The two squads hit the diamond again tomorrow evening at 7:15 p.m. The Dust Devils plan on sending out rookie starter Johendi Jiminian, a 20 year-old from the Dominican Republic who is currently 1-2 with a 2.68 ERA on the season.