Hillsboro Holds Spokane to Two Hits in 6-1 Win

Hillsboro, OR (May 11, 2024) – The Hops had the second lowest team ERA in the Northwest League entering Saturday’s contest against Spokane and they got another brilliant starting pitcher performance, this time from Ricardo Yan. The only hit that Yan allowed came in the fifth inning, as he struck out six over 5.1 innings. Christian Cerda had a three-hit game and Jack Hurley had two extra-base hits, as the Hops won their third straight game over the Indians at Hillsboro Ballpark 6-1.

Ricardo Yan only allowed one base runner through three innings, a walk to Jose Cordova in the second inning. The Indians went down in order in both the first and third innings, including a seven-pitch third frame.

Hillsboro had runners at second and third with nobody out in the second inning after a Cerda single and Sim double, but Blake Adams retired the next three Hop hitters to end the threat.

Jack Hurley, who was in the leadoff spot for the first time this season, started the third inning with his fifth double of the season. Neyfy Castillo drove home Hurley for the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly, his 14^th RBI in 15 games with Hillsboro this year.

Yan again breezed through the top of the order in the fourth, sending Spokane down one-two-three and keeping it a 1-0 game. The Hops broke through in the bottom half of the inning, scoring three runs on four base hits and a walk. The RBIs came from Walters, Corniel and Hurley in consecutive at-bats.

It was 4-0 Hillsboro entering the fifth where Spokane entered with a 0 in the hit column. After three singles yesterday, Jose Cordova broke up the no-hitter with a single, but was quickly sent down on the bases trying to steal second.

Spokane posed their biggest threat of the game in the sixth inning when Ricardo Yan walked the bases loaded. He gave way to Alfred Morillo with one out in the inning and Spokane could just get one run home on a wild pitch to bring them within three runs.

Brayan Castillo was the first reliever out of the Spokane pen’ and he retired all six Hops’ batters he faced. Tyler Ahern came on to face the top of the order in the seventh and Jack Hurley rudely welcomed him to the game by blasting a solo home run 110 MPH off the bat to deep right field. Hurley’s third home run of 2024 made it 5-1. The Hops then added one more in the eighth on a fielder’s choice RBI by Corniel to make it 6-1.

Jhosmer Alvarez and Shane Telfer both pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings en route to the 6-1 win. Hillsboro has won four of the first five games of the series against Spokane.

The Hops had a 12-hit game as a team, with five different players (Hurley, Cerda, Sim, Peña & Walters) recording multi-hit games.

Hillsboro and Spokane will play the final game of the series on Sunday at Hillsboro Ballpark. First pitch is at 1:05 with the pregame show starting at 12:50 on Rip City Radio 620 and Bally Live.