Bench Helps Legislate Latest Hops L

ee hits In a week where trials are at the top of many people's minds, late-inning tribulations continue to haunt the Hops. For the third consecutive game, Hillsboro (7-11) lost a lead in the eighth inning. Then in the tenth, a three-run lead turned out to be not enough.

The Eugene Emeralds (14-4) rallied for four runs in the bottom of the tenth to hand the Hops their latest gut-wrenching defeat, 7-6 at a soggy P.K. Park Thursday night.

With Spokane idle due to a rain out at Vancouver, the Emeralds took sole possession of first place in the Northwest League standings, while the Hops slipped into fourth place, a half game behind Vancouver.

After yet another bases-loaded walk in the eighth from the Hops bullpen tied the score and forced extra innings, the Hops appeared to be in the catbird seat after Andrew Pintar launched a three-run homer to left off Tyler Vogel to put Hillsboro up 6-3. Hillsboro had runners at second and third with one out, but could not add on as Julio Rodriguez (2-0) struck out Jack Hurley and Kevin Sim back-to-back to end the rally.

That turned out to be quite significant. Lefty reliever Armando Vasquez (0-1), who had breezed through the ninth with a pair of strikeouts, surrendered an RBI double to Tanner O'Tremba right off the bat in the bottom of the tenth. After DH Jack Payton drew a base on balls, number nine hitter Justin Bench placed a bunt between the mound and the third base line. Vasquez vainly attempted to retire the lead runner O'Tremba, but threw wide of the mark, sending O'Tremba home with the second run of the inning and allowing the tying run to reach third and winning to second with none out. Diego Velasquez followed with a fly ball to center, plenty deep enough to even the score.

With the game tied at six and one out, Hops manager Javier Colina turned to his seventh pitcher of the night. Junior Cerda, who had issued four bases loaded walks in the eighth inning in Tuesday's loss, surrendered a single to right field to Quinn McDaniel, sending Bench to third. McDaniel swiped his second base of the night on the first pitch to Onil Perez. With the count at 3-1, the Eugene catcher banged a single through the right side of Hillsboro's drawn-in infield, later welcoming a Gatorade shower from his teammates that accompanied the light rain falling from the Lane County sky.

Bench had two sacrifice bunts on the night, got hit by a Peniel Otano pitch in Eugene's game-tying eighth and doubled in the fourth inning off Hops starting pitcher Avery Short, who lasted just 3 1/3 innings as the Ems put multiple runners on base in each. But Bench's biggest play of the night may have come on defense, when he made a diving stop of Jack Hurley's sharp ground ball, throwing out Hurley to end the fourth inning with Gavin Conticello on third base.

Conticello, now leading the league in batting, home runs and OPS, extended his hitting streak to seven games with two singles and a double. Juan Corniel also had a three-hit night with two doubles, two runs scored and an RBI in his return to the Hops after a four-game sojourn at AAA Reno, where he had hits in all four games, including two multi-hit games.

Eugene took the first lead for the first time in the series, plating two runs in the first inning. But despite putting runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings, that's all they got off Short, who allowed four hits, two walks and two hit batters with one strikeout. The Emeralds were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position until their 10th-inning rally.

Hillsboro got a run back in the fourth inning when Corniel doubled, went to third on a Conticello single to right and scored on Neyfy Castillo's grounder to first. Bench made sure that was all they would get that inning.

Trailing 2-1 in the sixth after five strong innings from Eugene starting pitcher Manuel Mercedes (5 innings, three hits, season-high six strikeouts and one walk), the Hops jumped all over lefty Mike Mikulski. Pintar led off with a triple, Corniel followed with his second straight two-bagger. Conticello moved him with a single and the go-ahead run came home when Castillo bounced into a double play.

Hillsboro got outstanding work in relief from Shane Telfer, who limited Eugene to a single hit over 3 1/3 innings with three strikeouts and no walks. After departing with one out in the eighth, Otano came on and allowed a single to O'Tremba, before plunking Bench with two outs. Hard-throwing southpaw Liam Norris came on, but walked Velasquez and McDaniel back-to-back to force in the game-tying run.

O'Tremba led the Ems offense with three hits, including a pair of doubles, two runs scored and an RBI. He also had one of Eugene's six successful stolen bases.

The teams return to action Friday night at 7:05 p.m., live radio coverage begins at 6:50 p.m. on Rip City Radio 620 AM.