After last night’s twelve-inning game, both teams found the energy and determination to go one better as the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes scored two runs in the 13th to beat the Hillsboro Hops 5-3.  With one out, Kevin Rivera singled and came home on Juan Rodriguez’ triple down the right field line for the go ahead run.  Ryan Kirby followed with a single of his own to score Rodriguez for an insurance run.

The Hops had plenty of chances to win the game in earlier innings as they loaded the bases twice and another with two runners aboard.  They could not get that one run across the plate to win the game and stranded eight runners over three innings leading up to the 13th.  For the bottom of the final inning, Domingo Leyba managed to walk with two outs.  That put Brian Araiza at the plate representing the tying run.  He struck out on five pitches and everyone was ready to go home.

For the most part, both team’s bats were aggressive as there were very few called strikes on the night.  The game started with Malique Ziegler’s triple.  He came home on Kevin Rivera’s ground-out to second to take the initial lead.

The Hops followed with two runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to claim the lead.  Brian Araiza singled and scored on Eudy Ramos’ double.  Ramos came home on Yan Sanchez’ single.

Salem-Keizer scored a run in the fourth and fifth to tie and retake the lead.  That set up Hillsboro last minute ninth inning heroics to tie the game and send it into extra innings.  The rally had an inauspicious start when Yan Sanchez reached first after striking out on a wild pitch.  A minute later, he found himself at second from another wild pitch.  That was close enough to home for Sanchez to score on Paxton De La Garza’s double.

Some tension boiled over in the tenth when Manuel Geraldo tried to stretch to third from first on Christoph Bono’s single.  Left fielder Yan Sanchez quickly picked up the grounder and threw to third in plenty of time to tag the runner.  But, the home plate umpire saw differently.  After a heated discussion from Hops manager Shawn Roof, the runner was still safe.

Volcano starter Stetson Woods went six innings and left with a 2-1 lead.  The Hops changed that in the ninth.  John Timmins (W, 1-2) came on in the twelfth and thirteenth innings to shut the Hops down with no hits and four strikeouts for the win.

Hops starter Jhoan Duran went five innings and was left on the hook for the 3-2 deficit.  Duran was saved from the loss when the Hops tied it up.  Anfernee Benitez (L, 0-1) , who pitched for the Hops in 2016, came on for the final inning.  He gave up two runs on four consecutive hits for the loss.

Yan Sanchez went 3 for 6 with one RBI and scored a run.  Brian Araiza and Eudy Ramos both got two hits on the night.

For the Volcanoes, Juan Rodriguez also went 3 for 6 in an MVP-like performance.  Rodriguez tripled in a run and scored twice himself.  Malique Ziegler, Ryan Kirby and Christoph Bono also had multi-hit games.

The loss evened up the series between Salem-Keizer and Hillsboro.  Both teams will return to Ron Tonkin Field Thursday for the third and final game with an afternoon start time of 1:05 pm.

The Hillsboro Hops (4-3) fell into a first place tie with the Boise Hawks.  The Salem-Keizer Volcanoes (2-5) climbed to within two games of the division leaders.

Hops notes: In the top of the 13th, Yan Sanchez hustled and snared a line drive to left but the outfielder aggravated a hamstring and was replaced by Billy Endris in the line up.

Boxscore

By Greg Stoker
@GDStoker