May 20, 2023 – Northwest League (NWL) – Eugene Emeralds News Release
The Emeralds won game 5 against the Hillsboro Hops by a final score of 10-1. The Emeralds now move to 21-16 on the season and are tied for 1st in the Northwest League with the Spokane Indians.
Eric Silva got the start tonight for Eugene and had a strong showing. He pitched 3.2 innings and allowed just 2 hits and 1 earned run. He struck out a season high 7 batters and his ERA now moves to 2.67 on the season. Silva has been great so far this year and it was another dominant outing for the young pitcher.
The Emeralds were able to strike first in the game tonight. Grant McCray led the game off with a bunt hit. After an overthrow to first base he was able to get all the way to third base. A couple of batters later, Victor Bericoto, hit a single that scored McCray. A couple of batters later Adrian Sugastey was able to single to score Bericoto and give the Emeralds the 2-0 lead early in the ballgame.
Joshua Day was able to reach base to start the 4th inning and Gavin Logan hit an RBI-Single to give the Hops their only run of the ballgame. The ballgame slowed down over the next few innings as both teams were held scoreless in the 5th and the 6th inning.
The 7th inning is where things went a bit off the rails. Jimmy Glowenke was up to bat to start the pitcher and the Hops pitcher Larsen hit Glowenke on the top of the head to start the inning. The Ems were not fans of what happened and started to chirp at Larson on the mound. Things continued to get heated and eventually the Ems came out of the dugout. The Hops weren’t fans of that and it resulted in both teams emptying out their dugouts and both bullpens charging the field.
Luckily neither team threw a punch and it was just a lot of yelling and chirping going back and forth. The hops pitcher Larsen got ejected from the Hops and the Ems pitcher Jose Cruz also got ejected. It took a while for both teams to go back to the dugout and the Umpires had to discuss what happened for a while. Both pitchers got ejected and it took about 20 minutes to get things underway.
The very next batter, Luis Toribio, hit an absolute moonshot and gave the Emeralds the 4-1 lead. It was electric to follow up the fight with an immediate home run. The crowd was loving it and the place broke out into a huge cheer. Toribio leads the team in homers on the year and after a bit of a slower last week it was great to see him deliver in such a big moment.
Aeverson Arteaga stepped up to bat with a runner on and drove a ball out to deep left field for the 2-run homer. The crowd was still electric as it was the same half inning that the fight happened. Arteaga was able to deliver a big hit in a big moment.
The lineup was able to roll over and the bases were loaded for Grant McCray in the bottom of the 8th inning. After taking a couple of pitches McCray drove a ball out to left center field for the Grand Slam. It extended the Emeralds lead to 10-1 and McCray was fired up running around the bases. It was exactly what the Emeralds needed after the brawl and the crowd of 2,000 plus people couldn’t have been having a better time.
Hunter Dula came in to close things down for the Emeralds for the 9th and had a strong inning and didn’t allow a run. It gave the Emeralds the 10-1 win and their third win over the Hops this series. The win tonight guaranteed a tie this series, but if the Emeralds are able to win tomorrow it’ll give them the series victory over the Hops. It would be the 2nd straight series win over the Hops this series. Game 6 is tomorrow with the first pitch at 1:05 P.M.
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