EUGENE, Ore. – For the second night in a row the Eugene Emeralds pitching staff struggled midway through the game, but unlike Friday night there was no turning back in the 10-2 loss to the Boise Hawks.
Both teams pitching staff looked in mid-season form and the game remained scoreless until the top of the fifth inning. The Emeralds starting pitcher Matt Andriese had five strike outs and Yao-Lin Wang, who started for the Hawks, had four.
The Hawks (1-1) would rally for eight runs on five hits and an error. They had 13 players have at-bats in the inning.
Boise started the inning with a single by right fielder Reggie Golden, and two batters later they would score the first run of the game off of a RBI single by Ben Klafczynski.
Hawks designated hitter Chad Noble helped lead the charge in a fifth inning rally. // Photo: Alan K. Fox
After the run the Emeralds (1-1), who went through three pitchers in the inning, sent in relief pitcher Chris Haney. He proved to not be effective and allowed five more runs off of three hits in just 2/3 of an inning.
The third pitcher of the inning was the Emeralds third baseman last year, Paul Bingham, and he struck out the first batter he faced to end the inning.
Bingham would allow the two final Hawks runs in the sixth inning, but would hit his groove striking out three batters in the next two innings.
When asked about the switch of position for Bingham, skipper Pat Murphy said that it was a decision that the Padres organization had made over the off-season. He also mentioned that the loss did not feel good, but other then the inning it wasn’t a bad game.
“That big inning, nothing seemed to go our way, we didn’t execute a bunt play, didn’t block a ball, didn’t catch the ball,” Murphy said. “Other than that one inning, it was a good ballgame.”
Pitching coach Nelson Cruz showed support for his staff after the rough stretch.
“For almost five innings Andriese was under control the whole game and it was just one bad inning where we wasn’t able to hold them,” Cruz said. “We will learn from it. We have a very young pitching staff and a great ball-club and they were trying to do too much tonight.”
The only scoring of the game for the Emeralds came in the ninth inning after back-to-back doubles by the two 2011 first round picks, Jace Peterson and Cory Spangenberg.
First round draft pick Jace Peterson scored his first professional run in the ninth inning. // Photo: Alan K. Fox
“It’s the game of baseball; you have these losses a few times in the season,” Spangenberg said. “You just have to come out and play tomorrow.”
Spangenberg, who was selected 10th overall in this years MLB draft, got his second RBI of the season when Peterson scored off of his double and then later scored a run of his own off of a RBI by pinch hitter Matthew Colantonio.
Other then that there wasn’t much offense put up by the Emeralds. They struck out 11 times and only had two hits before entering the ninth inning.
“Most of the strikeouts happen because you leave the zone, so you have to stay in the zone and swing at pitches in the zone,” Murphy said. “Usually when they swing at pitches in the zone, you’ll see contact.”
The Emeralds will look to bounce back when they play game three of the five game series Sunday at PK Park. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
Leave a Reply