Eugene Too Much for Tri-City for Second Straight Night
Though staying in range for the majority of the game, the big inning befell the Tri-City Dust Devils (0-5 2H) for a second straight night Wednesday with the Eugene Emeralds socking three home runs on the way to downing the visitors by a score of 10-2 at PK Park. 3B
Though staying in range for the majority of the game, the big inning befell the Tri-City Dust Devils (0-5 2H) for a second straight night Wednesday with the Eugene Emeralds socking three home runs on the way to downing the visitors by a score of 10-2 at PK Park.
3B Chad Stevens had a great night despite the defeat, going 3-for-4 with a two-run home run in the 7th to dent the line score on the high side. 1B Matt Coutney singled and walked to reach base twice and CF Werner Blakely drew a pair of walks to do the same.
Eugene got out on the front foot by scoring three runs off Tri-City starter Jorge Marcheco (2-5) to take an early 3-0 lead. A walk and an error hurt the Dust Devils in the frame, with all three runs unearned.
Marcheco rallied from there, allowing only two baserunners in the next three innings and stranding both. The stretch included working around a leadoff double in the 4th inning by striking out the next three to post a zero on the scoreboard.
While Marcheco tried to keep his team in the ballgame, Emeralds starter Manuel Mercedes (3-5) proved an unsolvable riddle. The right-hander, whom the Dust Devils had tagged for 13 runs in his first three outings against them in 2024, allowed only one hit on the night and walked two while striking out six in six stellar innings.
Eugene added a run in the 5th when 2B Quinn McDaniel took Marcheco the opposite way for a solo home run to make it 4-0. The bottom of the 6th turned out to be Tri-City’s undoing, though, with the Emeralds sending all nine men to the plate and scoring five times. The last three of the burst came in on McDaniel’s second home run of the night, pulled to left, and LF Alex Suarez added a solo shot in the 8th to push his team to double digits.
Three of the 6th inning runs were charged to Marcheco, who went 5.1 innings and gave up a total of seven runs (four earned) on six hits, walking two and striking out four. Relievers Jose Fermin and Jake Smith covered the rest for the Dust Devils.
Tri-City and Eugene clash in game three of their six-game series at 6:35 p.m. Thursday night at PK Park. Right-hander Walbert Ureña (2-5, 4.69 ERA) will take the hill for the Dust Devils and the Emeralds will counter with left-hander Cesar Perdomo (5-1, 1.26 at Single-A San Jose), who makes his High-A debut.
Broadcast coverage of Thursday’s game begins with the pregame show at 6:15 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app.
Tri-City returns home for an abbreviated three-game series with the Spokane Indians starting Monday, July 1 at Gesa Stadium. Tickets for the Spokane series 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.