The second half of the 2013 season didn’t start the way the Eugene Emeralds had hoped. The visiting Boise Hawks took game one of the three-game series 6-0. The Ems matched the Hawks in the hit column, but Boise’s hits came in a more timely fashion and they were also helped by inaccuracy on the mound.
Starter Tayron Guerrero (1-2) walked three batters in his two innings of work before leaving with what manager Jim Gabella called “tightness in his forearm.” Guerrero made his second start of the season for the Ems and put them in a hole early, allowing three earned runs to score.
The first of those runs came in the third inning, when Jacob Rogers walked with the bass loaded to force home Carlos Penalver. Jacob Hannemann scored one batter later on Miguel Del Castillo’s passed ball, giving the Hawks a 2-0 lead. Boise tacked on two more in the fourth when Daniel Lockhart drove in Hannemann and David Bote. The damage could have been worse, but Ems right fielder Hunter Renfroe threw a laser from foul territory to cut down Lockhart at third, trying to stretch the base hit. Rogers crushed his fifth home run of the season in the fifth to increase the lead to 5-0.
Eugene didn’t have many chances to score, advancing runners past first base just three times. Their best opportunity came in the fifth with two outs when Malquiel Brito singled with two outs to load the bases, but they would stay that way as Anthony Torres grounded out to end the inning. The Ems had runners in scoring position again in the eighth, when Brito and Henry Charles advanced on Corbin Hoffner’s wild pitch. Renfroe flied out, again stranding potential runs on base.
“We just have to get consistent, you know, that’s the game of baseball,” said Gabella on the start to the second half of the season. “Whether it be a team winning games or a player with his career (and) moving up, consistency is what makes everything go around.”
The short season class A baseball season is split into two halves, granting playoff berths to the team that finishes with the best record at the end of each half. So even though the Emeralds finished the first half in third place, each team has an equal chance at claiming the second playoff spot.
“Every player needs to improve their skills, that’s one of our goals,” Gabella said. “When we started the season we had team goals to try to win a championship, and we had player development goals for every player to develop his skills … they’re doing that slowly, it doesn’t come overnight … they’re working hard and they’re getting better.”
The second half provides an opportunity for the Ems to start over and make a run at the postseason, which will begin September third.
Boise starter Dillon Maples (1-0) struck out seven over five shutout innings, collecting his first win of the season. Second overall pick Kris Bryant went 0-for-5 with five strikeouts in his Hawks debut.