Bryce Eldridge homers in Emeralds' loss

All season long the Emeralds’ faithful had waited and waited.

Finally, it was here. Down to Eugene’s final strike, Bryce Eldridge blasted a long homerun to right, providing the Ems only offense on an otherwise forgettable night.

On a 3-1 count, Eldridge, who has notably been hot of late entering hitting .406 in August, blasted his first homerun at PK Park.

Unfortunately outside of Eldridge’s homerun, the Emeralds flirted with the wrong kind of history Tuesday evening, falling 6-1 to the Hillsboro Hops at PK Park.

With the length of the MiLB season and the grueling schedule of the Northwest League there are going to be nights where players legs are too tired, their bats too heavy, the margins too tight.

And indeed, Tuesday was one of those nights, with the Emeralds held hitless through six innings while mustering just two base runners in the process.

During those fifteen outs Jose Cabrera troubled the Ems in a myriad of ways, striking out eight and dominating the strike zone early and often. The Emeralds best chances at knocks came via a Sabin Ceballos line out to right in the sixth.

Serving as a confluence of disaster for the Emeralds, Cabrera’s showing was backed by Hillsboro’s offensive explosion, with the Hops finishing with 10 hits and Christian Cerda and Tommy Troy’s homeruns providing the most damage.

The loss moves the Emeralds (51-57) eight games out of a playoff spot.

Luckily, infamy was avoided with the Emeralds mustering a hit via an Eldridge single in the seventh. The Ems are still yet to be no-hit thus far in 2024.

Saturday’s troubles began in the fourth inning with Troy and Cerda both clubbing home runs, it continued with Hillsboro tacking on two more in the fourth and another in the fifth.

It just wasn’t the Emeralds' night as the team struck out twelve times, the team will look to turn the tides in game two of the series tomorrow night.

Although the final score was seemingly bleak, there were a few positives from the night for the Emeralds.

First, Sabin Ceballos made his home Emeralds debut, with the former Duck receiving a warm welcome from the Eugene faithful which included his former head coach Mark Wasikowski.

Then, Eldridges homer continued his torrid August, first breaking up the no-no in the seventh with a single and then hitting the long homer.

And finally, Daniel Blair had a terrific outing, firing two scoreless innings and striking out a pair to keep the Hops’ offense at bay down the stretch.

But those three facts provided the most thunder for Eugene, with each passing game it appears a herculean run may need to be made for the Ems to make the playoffs.

Hillsboro, however, was there to capitalize on each Eugene mistake, each pitch too effective on a night where the margins between the two teams were far too vast.