The Eugene Emeralds lost their third consecutive contest Tuesday night, falling to the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes 8-2. Four home runs and stellar pitching from starter Andrew Leenhouts and three relief pitchers led the Volcanoes to their fifth win in their last six games. Leenhouts (5-0) tossed five innings allowing two runs (one earned), lowering his already stellar ERA to 1.65. Jake Smith, Chris Fern and Tyler Rogers shut out the Ems over the final four innings to clinch the win for Leenhouts and the Volcanoes.
Salem-Keizer’s bats exploded in the middle innings. Brandon Bednar led off the fourth inning with a solo home run to left, and Brian Ragira and Shilo McCall added back-to-back solo shots with two outs. In the fifth, Eugene Escalante scored on a Bednar sac fly, and Jeremy Sy followed with a two-run jack to left to cap off the Volcanoes’ four-homer night. They added two more run in the sixth courtesy of RBIs by Ryan Jones and Randy Ortiz. Nearly the entire lineup contributed to Tuesday night’s win; seven different players recorded a hit, four of which were multi-hit games. Bednar and Sy each drove in two runs to lead the RBI column.
Eugene had chances of their own to score runs, but went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, leaving nine men on base. Ronnie Richardson, Hunter Renfroe and Malquiel Brito had two hits apiece. The Ems’ first real scoring chance came in the third with Richardson on third and Renfroe on second with two outs, but Wynton Bernard flied out to end the inning. Eugene finally broke through in the fourth; with the bases loaded and no outs, Brito singled to center to give the Ems a 1-0 lead. Ryan Miller would score two batters later on a Leenhouts wild pitch, accounting for the only other run Eugene would score in the game.
The Emeralds would threaten again in the eighth when the first two batter reached base safely, but a double play and a ground out retired the side with runners stranded on the corners.
Eugene starter Jimmy Brasoban (1-2) had pitched well all season, bringing his sparkling 2.00 ERA into his seventh start. He raised that number to 3.38 Tuesday, as he allowed six runs on seven hits over five innings of work. Brasoban had only one home run hit off him through his first six starts, but got crushed, allowing four in Eugene’s loss. Genison Reyes allowed two runs in his lone inning of work, and Josh Richardson threw two scoreless innings of relief to round out the night on the mound for Eugene.
The Emeralds and Volcanoes will conclude their three-game series Wednesday night. The Ems will be looking to salvage one game from the North Division leaders and end their three-game skid.