EUGENE, Ore. --- In building the best record in all of minor league baseball (33-10), the Eugene Emeralds have lost back-to-back games only one time all season.
After falling to the Hops 6-1 Thursday night, the Ems grabbed an early lead for the first time in the series and held it to the finish, defeating Hillsboro 7-3 at P.K. Park.
Eugene got hits and runs in each of the first three innings off Hops starting pitcher Junior Sanchez (2-3) before the Emeralds bullpen blanked the Hops (17-26) over the final five innings.
It was 5-3 Eugene when starting pitcher Jacob Bresnahan departed, having allowed five hits and two walks with four strikeouts over four innings. After Yassel Soler reached on a leadoff throwing error by shortstop Gavin Kilen in the fifth, Eugene's Ryan Vanderhei (4-0) retired the next six batters consecutively, three on strikeouts.
Lefty Esmerlin Vinicio continued the pattern, setting down the first six Hops batters to face him, five on strikeouts. Trailing 7-3, the Hops put two runners on base in the ninth on a Modeifi Marte infield single and a two-out walk to Adrian Rodriguez. But the tying run never got to the plate as Jose Mejia popped out harmlessly to center to end the contest, Vinicio recording his second save as his season ERA dropped to 0.44.
For the second straight outing, Sanchez labored, throwing 79 pitches over three innings. The 20-year-old righty didn't walk a batter, but allowed five hits and several more deep counts, throwing at least 25 pitches in each inning.
Trevor Cohen led off the game with a double and scored his league-leading 40th run on Gavin Kilen's single to right, giving the former Tennessee first-rounder a league-leading 38th run batted in.
The Ems got another leadoff double from Carlos Gutierrez in the second inning. A strikeout wild pitch put Jakob Christian aboard with one out and Gutierrez scored when catcher Alberto Barriga threw wildly to first. Christian came home on Cohen's two-out RBi single past third base and the Ems had a 3-0 lead.
The Hops answered with a run in the top of the third after a leadoff Wallace Clark double and a single by Adrian Rodriguez put runners at first and third. After a Jose Mejia sacrifice Fly scored Clark, the Hops had to settle for one run after Rodriguez was caught in a pickle and tagged out in a rundown on Soler's grounder back to the mound.
Kilen set the table with.a leadoff single in the third inning, scoring on Jancel Villaroel's two-run homer to left center, his second in as many days and fourth of the season.
That would be it for Sanchez, who allowed five runs, four earned over three hard-working frames. Kyle Ayers pitched the final five innings, surrendering a two-run home run to Jean Carlos Sio in the sixth inning, followed by a dramatic bat flip and no shortage of theatrics as he rounded the bases, while Ayers glared at him from the mound most of the way.
Only one of the runs was earned after a Gutierrez pop-up dropped in fair when Clark and Rodriguez collided at the foul line in shallow left field. Sio sent the very next pitch to the roof of the Sargent Player Development Building in right field for his fourth home run of the season.
The Emeralds improved to 11-2 against Hillsboro this season. The teams meet in game five of the series Saturday night. Pregame coverage begins at 4:50 p.m. with first pitch at 5:05. Catch all of the live action on Rip City Radio 620 AM.