EUGENE, Ore. — In what may have been the sloppiest games of the year for the Eugene Emeralds and possibly the Northwest League, the Emeralds were able to come out on top of the Yakima Bears by the score of 7-6 Saturday night.
Both teams combined for four errors and multiple unearned runs.
The Emeralds (19-4), who set the NWL record for consecutive wins in a season earlier this week, have been fortunate to not have had a losing-streak of any type this season — never losing two or more games in a row.
First-year skipper for the Emeralds, Pat Murphy, joked stating, “That was a thing of beauty, a work of art right there.”
Eugene was able to secure the game in the bottom of the fifth inning off of a two-run homerun over the right-field fence by Zach Kometani putting the Emeralds up 7-5 entering the late innings.
Kometani was the only Eugene player to have more then one hit against the Bears’ pitching staff – finishing the game 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs.
“They were trying to pound me in the whole game and the first two at-bats I was battling it off from inside,” Kometani said. “I went up there thinking inside on that at-bat and I got it on the first pitch and put a good swing on it.”
Yakima (7-16) started the scoring in the top of the second inning.
The Bears’ shortstop David Narodowski scored on a ground out by teammate Steven Rodriguez putting the team up 1-0.
The lead was short lived and the Emeralds responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning.
Eugene was able to load the bases with the first three batters of the inning after back-to-back walks to Lee Orr and Kyle Gaedele and a single by Kometani.
After striking out first baseman Daniel Garce — Adam Kudryk, the Bears’ starting pitcher, the hit Jeremy Rodriguez, giving putting the tying run on the board. The next at-bat Jorge Minyety drove in two runs with a ground ball to left field putting his team up 3-1.
In the top of the third Yakima responded and made it look as if the game was going to a back-and-forth fight with a four-run rally with two outs in the inning.
The rally was started with a double by Zachary Jones and back-to-back fielding by Emerald infielders — the second of which allowed Jones to score from third, closing the score to 3-2. Yakima then loaded the bases after a passed ball and a walk by Eugene starting pitcher Juan Herrera.
With the bases loaded Garrett Weber hit his first triple of the season driving in three more runs of the Bears putting them ahead 5-3 to finish the top of the third inning.
After a scoreless fourth inning the Emeralds had a four run inning of their own putting them up 7-5.
The first run of the inning was scored by Jace Peterson when his college teammate and roommate Orr grounded out to Yakima’s third baseman Weber.
Gaedele brought the next run across the plate with a single to right field in the next at-bat, which scored Mykal Stokes from second. Stokes reached base on a throwing error by the Bears’ pitcher Kudryk.
The scoring for the game and the inning for Eugene came from the Kometani two-run shot.
The Bears put the final run of the game on the board in the top of the next inning, but that was all the Emeralds relievers were going to give up to close out the game
Justin Hilt scored on a sacrifice fly by former Oregon Duck Daniel Pulfer on the final play of the sixth inning bringing the Bears within one run.
Emeralds’ releif pitcher, Jeremy Gigliotti, entered the game in the seventh inning and earned his first save of the season and allowed no hits and had three strikeouts.
“We made a couple miscues on defense, but our pitchers battled all night and I think that’s what got us the win,” Gaedele said.
The Emeralds and Bears play game four of the five-game series today at PK Park and first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m. PST.
Alan K. Fox can be reached at alanfoxjr@gmail.com and on Twitter @alankfox
Leave a Reply