The Eugene Emeralds dropped game one of a three-game series with the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, 3-2, Thursday night at PK Park.
“It was a playoff type of game,” Emeralds manager Gary Van Tol said. “This is a team we’re going to have to beat to get that playoff spot in the second half.”
Eugene struck first when Kevonte Mitchell tagged a ground-rule double over the fence in right field to lead off the bottom of the third. Mitchell moved to third on Donnie Dewees’s infield single, then scored on Frandy De La Rosa’s 3-6-1 double play ball.
Richard Amion rapped his second hit, a sizzling line drive over second baseman De La Rosa’s outstretched glove, for an RBI single to tie the score 1-1 in the fifth. Amion scored the go-ahead run with two outs when third baseman Adonis Paula mishandled a ground ball off the bat of Miguel Gomez.
After Paula’s error, Mark Malave replaced starting pitcher Carson Sands with bases loaded and induced a pop-up to escape the jam. Sands’ night ended with two runs (one earned) off eight hits, a walk and four strikeouts in 4.2 innings.
Designated hitter Alberto Mineo’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly scored De La Rosa for the tying run, but the Volcanoes fought back in the seventh. Center fielder Dewees laid out for and missed Miguel Gomez’s shallow fly ball, and Jose Vizcaino Jr. scored to put Salem-Keizer ahead 3-2.
Eugene’s rally came up short in the bottom of the ninth. With one out and runners on first and third, Blake Headley laced a line drive toward the 5.5 hole and third baseman Vizcaino Jr. knocked it down with his glove. The ball rolled directly to the second baseman, who picked it up, tagged second and threw it to first for a bang-bang, game-ending double play.
“I thought he was safe,” Van Tol said. “A crazy play to end it, but there were a lot of little things throughout the game we could have been more efficient with.”
Although they faced him two weeks ago, the Emeralds struggled to figure out Salem-Keizer starting pitcher Mike Connolly. Connolly conceded two earned runs on five hits, two walks and three strikeouts in six innings. On July 23, he allowed one hit, struck out six and lasted 6.2 innings, but earned a no-decision after Dewees’s eighth-inning two-run homer catapulted Eugene to a 2-1 victory in the series opener. Salem-Keizer won the second and third games of the series.
The Emeralds’ loss Thursday was their third straight. They lost the final two games of their five-game road series with the Spokane Indians after they won the first three.
Today’s game was the first of 25 Emeralds games in 25 days.
“In a game like that, with a team like that, it’s going to come down to the wire, and I expect the same thing tomorrow night.”
The Emeralds and Volcanoes square off again Friday at 7:05 p.m.