VANCOUVER, BC — The Eugene Emeralds’ offense looked as if it had never been in since the arrival of first-year skipper Pat Murphy tonight against the Vancouver Canadians in their 11-6 win.
Leading the way for Eugene (25-10) was left fielder Jose Dore — who finished the game with eight RBIs and also batted 3-for-5 with two doubles and a home run. Four of his RBIs came in the fifth inning on a grand slam over the right-field fence.
Dore was able to put the Emeralds ahead in the top of the third inning after falling behind 3-0 in the first two innings by hitting a three-run double to right field, and there was no looking back for the San Diego Padres farm team.
Vancouver (21-12), the Toronto Blue Jays Single-A affiliate, scored in the first inning on a RBI-double by Nicholas Baligod, and followed that up with a two-run second inning.
Both runs in the second inning came in back-to-back at-bats from Jonathon Berti and Johnathan Jones.
Berti brought the first run across the plate on a triple and Jones brought Berti home on a sacrifice fly to deep center field.
Before Dore’s three-run double in the third inning, the Emeralds were scored their first run of the game on a RBI-single by Lee Orr.
After a scoreless forth inning the Emeralds had another four run inning in the fifth on Dore’s grand slam and followed it up with a three run sixth inning putting Eugene ahead 11-3 after six innings.
Zach Kometani started the scoring with a RBI-single to left field and Dore drove in another run during the next at-bat with a double to right field.
After a pitching change, Jeremy Rodriguez moved the final run of the game for the Emeralds across the plate with a sacrifice fly.
In the eighth inning, Vancouver’s bats began to come alive — scoring three runs, but still ended coming up short 11-6.
Randy Schwartz started the inning off with a triple and scored on the next at-bat on a single to left field by Stephen McQuail who leads the Northwest League in home runs (10).
The final two runs of the game came across home plate on a two-run single by Jones with two outs.
With the win Eugene has moved two games ahead of Vancouver in the NWL West Division standings.
The two teams will now head to Eugene, Ore. to play a three-game series at PK Park. The first game of the series will be played tomorrow, and first pitch is scheduled for 7: 05 p.m.
Alan K. Fox can be reached at alanfoxjr@gmail.com and on Twitter @alankfox
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