The Eugene Emeralds came into Monday night’s bout with the Boise Hawks with a clean slate. They lost seven games the past eight days, but today marked the beginning of a new-ish season.
Eugene (17-21) finished third to division-winner Hillsboro (22-16) in the Northwest League South’s first half. If it wins the second half, it will play Hillsboro in a three-game playoff series starting Sept. 7. The winner will play the North winner in the league championship round.
“Our mulligan’s over,” manager Gary Van Tol said. “We were riding a pretty good wave and we lost that. Most of the guys in the clubhouse tasted that. Now let’s kick it into gear and address some things we can do better.”
The Emeralds burst the second half open with a strong offensive showing that was overdue. They tallied 11 hits in their 9-5 win, and scored their highest run total in the past 18 games.
Second-round draft pick Donnie Dewees flexed his offensive prowess again after first-rounder Ian Happ was called up to South Bend last week. He extended his hitting streak to seven games, tallied 3 RBIs and launched his third home run in five games, a solo shot off Angel Lezama. He led off the first inning by singling then stealing second and third base.
“He’s a hacker,” Van Tol said of Dewees. “He gets things going. He’s not there to take pitches and when he runs into one he’s got some pop. He’s doing things at the top of the order to be that spark plug guy.”
Eloy Jimenez put Eugene on the board with a ground rule double that knocked Dewees home, and then tied the score on Ian Rice’s RBI double. Matt Rose attempted to score from first but was gunned down at the plate by the shortstop on a relay from the left fielder.
Oscar De La Cruz suffered a rare hiccup in his seventh start for Eugene. He balked in a run in the first inning and spread five earned runs across five innings.
“He wasn’t his most efficient, but he grinded it out,” Van Tol said of De La Cruz. “It always seems like [a balk] happens with a runner on third. For whatever reason, I think he lost focus a little bit.”
The Hawks scored three runs off De La Cruz in the third, but gave two back on errors in the inning’s bottom half. Jimenez reached base with two outs on the shortstop Herrera’s high throw to first, and advanced to third on Matt Rose’s double. Both runners came around to score when Albert Mineo’s sharp ground ball ricocheted off the glove of Boise second baseman Forrest Wall, and the Emeralds took a 6-5 lead.
The Emeralds took off with the game from there. Blake Headley delivered Eugene’s fifth double and scored Mineo in the fifth inning. Rose picked up an RBI on a sixth-inning single. Dewees’s RBI groundout in the seventh gave Eugene a four-run edge.
The Emeralds are now 1-0 in the second half and tied 1-1 in the series. They’ll play the rubber match against Boise tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. before heading north to Spokane for a four-game series with the Indians.
Follow Kenny Jacoby on Twitter @KennyJacoby