The Eugene Emeralds can’t wait to leave Boise, Idaho.
After two games against the Hawks, the Emeralds have allowed 25 runs, 30 hits and have only managed to scratch across 3 runs of their own. Leading the offensive explosion for the Hawks has been David Bote, who has been an absolute thorn in the side of the Eugene pitching staff, combining for 7 RBI’s in the first two games of the series.
While being victims of an hostile onslaught of offensive production the last two games, the early stages of each match looked bright for the Emeralds. Like they did the night before, the Ems’ got on the board first, this time on a two-out RBI single by third baseman Fernando Perez in the top of the 4th.
In the bottom of the frame, Boise catcher Cael Brockmeyer smacked a two-out RBI single of his own to even the game at 1. Later in the inning, a throwing error by the Emeralds caused another 2 runs to score giving the Hawks their first lead of the night. The two offenses would stall each other until Bote stepped to the plate in the bottom of the 6th. On a 3-0 pitch, Bote got the green light and bombed a 3-run homer to push the Boise lead to 5. Later in the inning Kevin Encarnacion sliced an RBI triple and then eventually scored himself on another Eugene error to make the score 8-1 in favor of the Hawks.
Things went from bad, to worse for the Emeralds in the following inning. Again with two-outs, the Hawks started a rally that included a 2 RBI single by shortstop Carlos Penvalver and a 3-run home run by Encarnacion pushing the Ems’ deficit to 12. Eugene went on to get another run on the night, but the runs given up by the Emeralds’ pitchers would be too much for any offense to overcome. In back to back night’s the Hawks posted their best run production of the season with 12 runs last night and 13 against the Ems on Wednesday.
Hawks starting pitcher James Pugiliese handled the Eugene offensive for the majority of his 6 inning pitching performance including a stretch in which he retired the first 10 Emeralds’ batters to start the ball game. He finished with 5 strikeouts and allowed only 3 Eugene batters to reach base. Reliever Scott Frazier finished off any chance of an Ems comeback with a 1-2-3 inning in the 9th.
Eugene starting pitcher Coby Cowgill received his first loss of the season giving up 6 runs over his 5.1 innings of service. Eugene reliever Jeffrey Enloe allowed 6 runs of his own in 1.1 innings pitched.
The Ems will finish off its series with Boise tomorrow night when Vladimir De La Cruz faces off against the Hawks’ starting pitcher Dillon Maples. Maples comes into the game with a 4-0 record and a dismal 1.17 ERA since being called up to Boise. De La Cruz has started one game for the Emeralds, but pitched well in his small sample size. He threw 3 innings against the Spokane Indians allowing only 1 run on a solo home run.