LT Tolbert knew how to be in the right place at the right time.  With the game tied in the sixth, Tolbert hustled to first on a throwing error by short stop Connor Kopach and took second base on Andy Yerzy’s walk.  That was close enough for LT.  All the Hillsboro Hops second baseman needed was Joey Rose to single to left field and Tolbert hustled home for the go ahead score.  The Hops held on for a 3-1 win over the Everett Aquasox.

Fastballs Replace Smoke

Unlike the night before, when the Hops beat Eugene 10-1 on a smoke filled evening, the game remained close through-out.  Pitching became the way to win for the night.  Matt Tabor started for the Hops and lasted four innings on one run ball.  It all

came to a no decision as the score was tied 1-1 when he left the mound for the final time.  The rest of the game was distributed among four Hops pitchers that kept the visiting team scoreless the rest of the way.

The shut-down began when Ethan Larrison (W, 6-1) came on for two innings for the win.  Trevor McKenna (H, 7), and Cristofer Ogando (H, 4) held the Aquasox down for another two innings.  Finally, Chester Pimentel (S, 6) struck out two in the ninth to save the win.  Jheyson Caraballo (L, 4-4) started for Everett and took the loss.

LT Tolbert Scores Twice

The evening started with promise for the offense.  Jake McCarthy smacked a deep triple for the Hops in the first and scored on Geraldo Perdomo’s ground out.

But, the Aquasox quickly matched in the third when Charlie McConnel swatted a deep triple of his own, coming home on Josh Stower’s single.  Everett managed only two more hits on the night.

However, the Hops still needed to score to take the lead.  LT Tolbert managed to score the go ahead run in the sixth and just to make sure, added one more in the ninth but there were no triples to help him around the bases.  Instead, Tolbert subsisted on a single by Andy Yerzy and a sacrifice by Joey Rose

Standings

As a result, the win extended the Hillsboro Hops (20-8) win streak to seven games and stretched their Southern Division lead to seven games.  The loss maintained the Everett Aquasox (12-15) 3.5 games behind the Northern Division leading Vancouver Canadians (16-12).  The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (13-15) dropped into a second place tie with the Eugene Emeralds (13-15) after losing to the Spokane Indians 18-4.

Both teams return to Ron Tonkin Field Friday night game #2 in the five game series.  The Hops will bring Matt Mercer (0-0) to the mound.  On 8/19, Mercer went four innings at Salem-Keizer and struck out seven batters.  But, went to naught and a no decision.

Everett will bring Michael Plassmeyer (0-1) to the mound.  On 8/18, Plassmeyer faced Tri-City and lasted two scoreless innings giving up one hit and striking out two.  Plassmeyer also faced a no decision for his last efforts.

New Guy

Also, read about LT Tolbert’s first game with the Hops on July 26^th.  Seems like the new guy started making a good impression form the very start.  Above all, Tolbert has not let up.

Boxscore

By

Greg Stoker

@GDStoker