The sell-out crowd that came out to “Red, White and BOOM!” Night at PK Park Sunday evening showed up expecting to see an explosive display both on and off the field with a firework show after the game.
Fans at the ball park had to settle for the post-game firework show.
The only fireworks displayed on the field came from Salem-Keizer Volcanoes pitcher Hengerber Medina, who put together an explosive performance, giving up four hits in six innings of shutout baseball in a 3-0 victory over the Eugene Emeralds.
Medina picked up his first win of the season, and n the process, snapped the Emeralds’ four game winning streak and dropped their record to 12-5.
After a relatively stress free three innings of work for Emeralds starting pitcher Jesus Castillo, he ran into some trouble in the fourth inning. Castillo surrendered three straight singles to load the bases to begin the inning. A sacrifice fly by Ryan Howard scored a run followed by a weakly hit ball to shallow right field by Ryan Kirby that was misplayed and brought in another run to make the score 2-0. A walk of Zach Bowers again loaded the bases for the Volcanoes but Matt Rose caught a high foul ball for the second out followed by a big strikeout of Julio Pena, and the Emeralds were able to limit the damage to two runs.
Castillo’s night came to an end in the top of the sixth inning. He gave up two runs on seven hits and struck out five in the loss. He was replaced by M.T. Minacci who gave up back to back hits to start the inning, however, the first hit was a slow roller that the third base third baseman Matt Rose let go in hopes it would go foul. It did not, Bowers was hit by a pitch in the next at bat and once again the Volcanoes were set up with the bases loaded for the third time of the night. The Volcanoes added a run on a fielder’s choice by shortstop Yeiler Peguero, but a ground out by Manuel Geraldo ended any additional scoring threat in the sixth by the Volcanoes.
Both bullpens put together strong performances the rest of the way, with the Volcanoes bullpen holding the Emeralds to one hit.
The Emeralds will now hit the the road for a five game series against the Everett Aqua Sox beginning Monday night at 7:05 pm in Everett, Wash.