Double the Fun: Late Two-Bagger Takes Tri-City to Victory

A bases-clearing double in the bottom of the 8^th inning by 3B Ben Gobbel provided the Tri-City Dust Devils (7-12) the runs they needed for a 4-1 win over the Everett AquaSox (6-13) Friday night in front of 1,938 at Gesa Stadium.

Gobbel came into his at-bat against Everett reliever Bryan Pope (0-2) without a hit on the night, reaching via walk in the 1^st inning. The Cumming, Georgia native hit a hard grounder inside the left field line that rolled all the way to the corner, scoring CF Werner Blakely, RF Jorge Ruiz and SS Caleb Ketchup to break a 1-1 tie and delight the home crowd. Blakely and Ruiz had both singled to get aboard, and Ketchup drew a second walk on the night.

Both teams, in fact, had the bases loaded with no one out in their respective halves of the 8^th inning. The AquaSox, though, were turned away by reliever Jared Southard (1-0) and the Tri-City defense, with the righty inducing a 1-2-3 double play and a groundout to get out of a major jam.

The Dust Devils turned four double plays on the night in all, three of them with starter Chris Clark on the mound. The right-hander from Wayne, Pennsylvania gave his team another good performance by going 6.1 innings and allowing a run on five hits while walking four but striking out five. The outing marked Clark’s third quality start in a row for Tri-City.

Both teams held the other off the scoreboard until the bottom of the 6^th. There, with two out and a man on, Kennewick native DH Mason Martin struck for a line drive double over Everett RF R.J. Schreck to the right field wall. Ketchup, who had walked and stolen a base to get into scoring position, made it to the plate with ease for a 1-0 lead. An RBI double by AquaSox C Freuddy Batista tied the game at 1-1, with Gobbel’s double having the final say offensively.

Cam Minacci, the Dust Devils’ closer, pitched a 1-2-3 9^th inning to capture his third save of the year and bring the series even at two games apiece. Minacci, Southard and lefty Quinton Martinez combined for 2.2 scoreless frames to finish the game out.

Tri-City had just five hits on the night, held down in the first five innings by Everett starter Ty Cummings. The righty gave up only one hit, a double by 1B Matt Coutney in the 2^nd inning, and retired the final 12 Dust Devils he faced. Clark and the bullpen proved up to the challenge, though, keeping the home team close until they struck for the win.

Game five of the six-game set between Tri-City and Everett has been scheduled for a 6:30 p.m. start Saturday night at Gesa Stadium, with postgame fireworks lighting up the night sky thanks to Yoke’s Fresh Market. Left-hander Erik Rivera (0-0, 3.12 ERA) heads to the hill for the Dust Devils, countered by right-hander Ryan Hawks (1-1, 3.95 ERA) for the AquaSox.

Broadcast coverage of the contest will begin with the pregame show at 6:10 p.m, both here and on the MiLB app as well as video coverage on MiLB.tv.

Tickets for Saturday night's contest are on sale now, with special ticket rates available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit the team’s official ticketing site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.