Hops Split Friday & Saturday games at Tri-City, Set for Sunday Season Finale

PASCO, WASH. (Sept. 8, 2024) --- The Hillsboro Hops played one of their poorest games of the year on Friday night at Gesa Stadium in a 7-3 loss to Tri-City, followed by a crisp 2-1 victory over the Dust Devils on Saturday. And on Sunday night at 6:30, Hillsboro will face Tri-City in the final game of the 2024 season. The game will air on Rip City Radio 620AM in Portland, and worldwide at www.RipCityRadio.com.

Hops batters strike out less often than all but 20 of the other 120 teams in minor league baseball, but they didn’t display that on Friday. The Hops whiffed a club-record 20 times, surpassing the 19 strikeouts they suffered in a game in May of 2022. And they committed three errors, one more than they had committed in their previous seven games combined. Yet, the Hops trailed just 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh. With two out, Hops lefty Carlos Rey snapped off a great-looking slider to the Dust Devils’ Joe Redfield on a 2-2 pitch, but it was ruled ball three. And on the next pitch, Redfield hammered a three-run triple to break the game open.

After a pair of middling starts, right-hander Roman Angelo was back on his game on Saturday night, limiting Tri-City to just one run on two hits over five innings, with two walks and seven strikeouts. Yet the Hops trailed 1-0 heading to the seventh. Jack Hurley and Jose Fernandez led off the inning with singles, and Kevin Sim tied the game with an RBI ground-out. With two out, Gavin Logan was hit by a pitch to load the bases, bringing up little-used catcher Jeremiah Boyd, who was serving as DH. Boyd laid off a high fastball on a 3-2 pitch to force home the go-ahead run.

The Hops’ bullpen took it from there. Teofilo Mendez had worked a scoreless sixth inning, and after the Hops took the lead, Landon Sims pitched around a two-out triple in the bottom of the seventh. Philip Abner walked a batter in the eighth, and left after recording two outs. Alfred Morillo came in and induced cleanup hitter Sonny DiChiara to fly out to right and strand the tying run at second.

Morillo then worked a 1-2-3 ninth to record his 13th save of the season. It was the 14th of his Hops career, tying Zac Curtis for the club’s all-time lead.

Hillsboro is 33-32 in the second half, and 68-62 overall. Though their playoff quest ended on Thursday, with a win in Sunday’s season finale, the Hops will end the season in a virtual tie with Vancouver (68-61) for the Northwest League’s second-best season-long record. Hillsboro won three league championships in their seven seasons at the Short Season Class A level (2014, 2015, 2019), but 2024 is their most successful year since moving to the Advanced Class A level prior to the 2021 season.

The 2024 season has also featured the development (and, in some cases, promotion to Double-A) of many players who are likely to help the parent Arizona Diamondbacks in the future. Most notably, outfielder Gavin Conticello, who just turned 21 in June, has set Hops single-season records for games played, batting average, hits, total bases, doubles and triples --- all this while playing extremely well in the outfield, a position he has spent the season learning.

Hops starting pitching, led by Joe Elbis, Avery Short, Roman Angelo, Jose Cabrera, Spencer Giesting and Logan Clayton, has been remarkable. Hops starters enter the final day of the season with a combined 3.31 ERA, best in the league, and 10th-best in all of baseball.

The 2025 Hillsboro Hops season --- their final year at Hillsboro Ballpark, their home since 2013 --- will begin on Friday, April 4th, at home against the Eugene Emeralds. The rest of the schedule will be announced later. (The Hops’ palatial new stadium, currently under construction next door to Hillsboro Ballpark, will open in the spring of 2026.)