Eduardo Herrera saved the 4-1 victory over the Boise Hawks for the Hillsboro Hops.   His team leading eighth save ties him with Bryan Menendez, who is now pitching for the Kane County Cougars, for the co-lead.

Chip Away

The Hops slowly pulled away a run or two at a time.  The Boise Hawks already scored their first and only run.  It came on Bryant Quijada’s RBI walk with the bases loaded.  Then the Hops started picking away.  First came Jesus Marriage scoring from second in the fourth.  It resulted from a two-error relay from right field, after Liover Peguero’ single, to tie the game.

With the first two runs of the game coming on a bases loaded walk and a two error misplay, it remained to be seen how much offense could be expected.  Two innings later, the Hop fans’ patience was rewarded.

In the sixth, Ricky Martinez and Jorge Barrosa led off with consecutive singles.  Tristin English joined them with a walk to load the bases with no outs. For the second time tonight, the game would see an RBI walk, this time by Marriaga.  The Hops scored again when Barrosa came home on Peguero’s double-play ball. Joe Gillette added the final run when he singled and came home on Martinez’ RBI single in the seventh.

Scare At Plate

The game stopped momentarily when the Hawks’ catcher Bryant Quijada took a ball to the throat.  It came up on him after a bounce in the dirt. Visibly shaken, Quijada went to the dugout where he tried to shake it off the best he could.  But, management decided to take him out and bring in catcher Nic Motley from the bullpen to finish the game. Quijada could be seen in the dugout to the end, watching his team trying to mount a comeback.

Shut Down Pitching

As close as the score was, the 4-1 lead seemed bigger than it really was.  That was due to several pitchers combining for a one run, five-hit game from the mound.  Even though it was Eduardo Herrera saving the game at the end, the other four saved just as much.

Starter Drey Jameson pitched two innings getting into a little trouble towards the end.  The second inning started with three singles to load the bases. Jameson then walked the only Hawks run in to give the visitors the early lead.  All without an out. But, Jameson pulled back control and induced two infield fly rule pop-ups and a ground-out to end the inning with only one run scored.

After that, it didn’t really matter.  Yan Sanchez pitched a hitless inning. Cody Reed (W, 2-0) came in and allowed two more hits over 3.1 innings.  Those would be the last hits the Hawks would get. Mailon Arroyo (H, 3) held Boise hitless for almost two innings striking out five of six batters faced.  Finally, Eduardo Herrera (S, 8) saved the best for last when he came in the ninth and retired the side in order for his eighth save.

For Boise, Will Etheridge started and cruised through the first five innings giving up only four hits.  However, Colton Harlow (L, 1-1) ran into some troubles of his own during relief. Harlow gave up two singles and two walks scoring a run to start the sixth, chasing him after that. Stephen Jones came in and got Peguero to hit into a double play and Yerzy to strike out to get out of the inning with only a 3-1 deficit.

Playoffs

The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes meet the Hillsboro Hops in the first round of the playoffs.  However, the Hops would still like to win the second half championship to earn their place. The win tonight helped the Hillsboro Hops (21-13) maintain their three game lead over the SK Volcanoes (18-16) with four games left to play.  The Hops took the season series with the Volcanoes 8-7 to hold the tie-breaker. Therefore, one Hops win or Volcanoes loss will give the Hops the second half championship.

You can find game three and rubber match between Boise and Hillsboro tomorrow night at 7:05 PM.  Be sure to catch the game recaps at the Minor League Sports Report. Also, follow me on Twitter for half inning updates on all Hops home games.  Next home game is tomorrow night.

Box Score

By

Greg Stoker

@GDStoker