Drey Jameson (W, 1-4) has struggled with bad luck in the beginning of 2021.  Tonight, Drey Jameson got what he needed for his first win of the season as the Hillsboro Hops downed the Eugene Emeralds 3-2.

Hops Win Another One Run Game

The offense may have been sparse for both teams tonight but there was some offense.  The Hops are getting used to one run games as their last five games have all been decided by just one run.  Good news is the Hops hold a winning record (3-2) during that stretch.

Eugene took the first and last score of the game.  Ricardo Genoves led off the second with a solo blast.  In the eighth, Ismael Munguia doubled and scored on Tyler Fitzgerald’s RBI single.  Munguia’s score brought the Ems to within one run but it did the home team no good.  After Fitzgerald’s run-producing single, the Ems followed with three strikeouts, two groundouts and a fly out to center field.

Eugene’s runs turned out to be no more than two slices of bread.  It was the Hops three runs in the middle that turned out to be the meat of the sandwich.

It took the Hops two more innings but they finally got on board to tie the game in the fourth.  Andy Yerzy led off with a single, stole a base and scored on Cam Coursey’s RBI double.  The Hops took the lead in the next inning when Roman Ruiz led off with his single and eventually scored on Tristin English’s RBI single.  The Hops third and final run of the game turned out to be the game winner.  It came on the next batter.  Axel Andueza had reached base on a fielder’s choice, moved to second while Ruiz scored, ran to third on Yerzy’s fielder’s choice and scored on a throwing error from the Ems’ shortstop Nolan Dempsey.

Drey Jameson Quality Start

While the offense made it fun to watch the opportunistic ways of scoring, the stellar pitching gets credit for the win.  Drey Jameson started for the Hops and made 91 pitches carry him through the sixth inning.  While on the mound, Drey nearly struck out half of the batters he faced: 11 out of 24.

After Drey Jameson reached his pitch limit, the relief corps came in for the mop up duties.  Wesley Rodriguez (H, 4) grabbed the seventh and eighth innings and struck out four of his eight batters.  Finally, Justin Lewis (S, 1) came in for the close.  While he didn’t add to the strikeout total, he only needed ten pitches to retire the side in the ninth and preserve the win.

Aaron Phillips (L, 3-6) started for the Ems and started with three shutout innings.  That ended with the Hops scoring three runs by the fifth and chased him from the mound.  John Russel and Ryan Walker shut the plate down for the rest of the game allowing no runs on four hits.

Standings

The win helped the Hillsboro Hops (31-38) gain a game on top of the league Everett and are now 15 games behind.  However, they did not gain any ground on the two teams immediately above them, Spokane and Vancouver, as they won tonight as well and are still one game ahead of the Hops.  The loss maintained the six and a half game separation between the Eugene Emeralds (40-30) and Everett.

The Hops not only won the game 3-2, they also took the lead in the series 3-2.  The two teams meet again Sunday evening for the sixth and final game.  The Ems will be playing to tie the series.  The Hops are playing to win it.

The game starts at 5:05 PM Sunday evening.  You can watch the game on MiLB.tv or listen in on 620 AM radio.  In the meantime, check out last week’s look back.

Box Score

By

Greg Stoker

@GDStoker