EUGENE, Ore. -- After a 6-2 start to the second half of the Northwest League season, the Hillsboro Hops have fallen and cannot seem to get up.
The Eugene Emeralds (12-11 second half, 54-35 overall) scored all three of their runs in the fifth inning and got a second straight strong outing from their bullpen, handing the Hops a 3-1 defeat Saturday night at P.K. Park.
The loss was Hillsboro's seventh straight and 14th in the last 15 games, sending a promising group of young prospects to a a surprising 7-16 second half record (39-50 overall).
The storyline was familiar from the previous day: an early lead, the inability to fully capitalize on a scoring opportunity and a complete absence of production in the middle innings.
With top Giants pitching prospect Jacob Bresnahan (3-2) on the hill, Hillsboro had little margin for error. The Hops crashed the scoreboard with back-to-back hits to start the second inning. Jose Mejia laced a single up the middle and Yassel Soler followed with shot off the center field fence for an RBI double. One out later, Brady Counsell reached on an infield hit to shortstop.
With two on and one out, the Hops threat came to an end when Avery Owusu-Asiedu lined out to left field. Caught too far off the bag, Soler was thrown out for an inning-ending double play.
The Hops wouldn't sniff the bases again until the eighth inning.
Bresnahan retired the final ten batters to face him, fanning seven without a walk over five innings in his third consecutive strong July outing.
Meanwhile. Hops starter Wellington Aracena (2-5) danced around danger in the first two innings, keeping Eugene at bay despite three walks, a hit batter and a Lisbel Diaz single. A double play got him out of a first inning jam and Diaz was thrown out trying to steal in the second, keeping Eugene off the board.
In the fifth, Eugene evened the score on a leadoff home run to center by Jakob Christian. Back-to-back base hits followed, but after Walker Martin was thrown out at home and Robert Hipwell forced out at second base, it looked as if Aracena might wiggle off the hook again.
But Carlos Gutierrez ripped a line drive out of the reach of third baseman Wallace Clark down the left field line to drive in two and the Eugene pen took care of the rest.
Mauricio Estrella, making his third Eugene appearance since being called up from Low-A San Jose, retired the first seven Hops to face him, four on strikeouts. After Kenny Castillo fouled out to first base to open the eighth, 17 consecutive Hops had failed to reach base. Counsell ended that streak with a bloop single to left.
Estrella departed, Ryan Slater came on and retired Owusu-Asiedu and Slade Caldwell to end the eighth.
A last glimmer of hope flickered in the ninth when Kayson Cunningham battled his way aboard with a 12-pitch walk and Carlos Virahonda shot a single through the right side of the infield. With the tying runs aboard, Jose Mejia lined out to Martin at short, with Cunningham just getting back to the bag at second by his fingertips. But Clark struck out to end the game, becoming the 24th Hop strikeout victim over the first two games of the series.
Christian reached base three times, walking twice to go with his ninth home run. All nine Emeralds reached base at least once.
Cunningham reached base twice with a walk and first inning single for the Hops, who saw their July team batting average drop to .200 after mustering just eight combined hits over the first two games of the series.
The series wraps at 4:05 p.m. Sunday before the Hops return to Hillsboro for a 12-game homestand starting Tuesday night against the Vancouver Canadians. All Hops games are broadcast live on Rip City Radio 620 AM.