EUGENE, Ore. — The Emeralds continue to keep to their winning ways — winning a Northwest League record 14th-consecutive victory — with a 9-3 win over the Vancouver Canadians. The record was previously held by Rogue Valley (1969) and Walla Walla (1973).
The win was not the only record set for the San Diego Padres farm team — they also set an attendance record with 4,601 fans and the previous record was set the night before.
For the second night in a row, right fielder Lee Orr put the Emeralds score out of reach of the Canadians with a home run. His grand slam tonight in the bottom of the fourth inning put Eugene up 7-1 after four. The night prior Orr hit a three-run home run to put Eugene up 7-1.
“It’s always fun to get the hit that puts us out and gives us a big lead,” Orr said. “It makes you feel more relaxed and you keep going on and winning.”
The Emeralds’ (17-2) shortstop, Jace Peterson, finished the game 3-for-5 at the plate with two RBIs and also scored two runs of his own.
“He’s (Orr) one of the strongest kids I know with the bat, and when you leave one over the plate, he’s going to make you pay for it,” Peterson said about his former college teammate and roommate at McNeese State.
“It’s great for this town and great for the Eugene Emeralds,” first-year skipper Pat Murphy said. “This organization has been around for a long, long time and to bring them a record is something that they can remember and enjoy and something for our players to enjoy.”
The Canadians (11-8), who now trail Eugene by nine games in the NWL by six games, scored the first run of the game in the top of the first inning after two throwing errors by Eugene’s starting pitcher Colin Rae.
It didn’t take long for Eugene to respond and tie the game up at one run apiece.
Vancouver’s’ starting pitcher Black McFarland, a 6’5” right hander, loaded the bases after retiring the first two Emeralds he faced by giving up and double to second baseman Cory Spangenberg and then walking the next two Emeralds he faced.
Cory Spangenberg has been named Northwest League Player of the Week back-to-back weeks. // Photo: Alan K. Fox
Spangenberg was named NWL player of the week for the second week in a row before the game. He now has reached base in every game of the season and continues to lead the NWL in on base percentage (.548) and ranks second in batting average (.388).
The Emeralds would then score on the next at-bat when McFarland walked his third consecutive batter he faced — scoring Spangenberg from third.
In the top of the second inning, Rae continued to have problems throwing the ball and had back-to-back wild pitches with one man on and two outs. Canadians’ center fielder, Matt Newman would move from first to third on the pitches.
Rae stuck out the final batter of the inning to stop Vancouver’s chance to take the lead. He finished the game allowing seven hits and struck out three batters and now has improved his record on the season to 3-0.
“Rea bobbed and weaved, bobbed and weaved, bobbing and weaving through five, had runners on base every inning, leadoff guy was on four out of five innings,” Murphy said. “It’s not ideal, but he found a way to get it done.”
Peterson would put the Emeralds up in the bottom of the second off of a RBI single that scored Matthew Colantonio from first with a double to center field. Peterson scored later in the inning on a ground-rule double by Spangenberg putting Eugene up 3-1 after two innings.
After Orr’s grand slam in the fourth, the Emeralds scored another two runs in the fifth inning putting the game out of reach.
The first run of the inning came from a leadoff solo home run by first baseman Jose Dore and the second run scored on a RBI-single by Peterson — putting Eugene up 9-1 after five and the scoring for the Emeralds would stop there.
Vancouver scored a run in the sixth inning and another in the ninth but the runs proved not to be enough.
The Emeralds will look to sweep their fifth-strait series when they wrap-up the three-game series with the Canadians on July 6 at PK Park. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
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