Rooster Tails Outraced to Checkered Flag by Emeralds
A 9th inning bases loaded walk ended up the difference in a tightly played ballgame Saturday night at Gesa Stadium, where the Eugene Emeralds (29-25) inched past the Tri-City Dust Devils (24-30) by a score of 3-2 to guarantee themselves at least a split of the team’s six-game series. Tri-City,
A 9th inning bases loaded walk ended up the difference in a tightly played ballgame Saturday night at Gesa Stadium, where the Eugene Emeralds (29-25) inched past the Tri-City Dust Devils (24-30) by a score of 3-2 to guarantee themselves at least a split of the team’s six-game series.
Tri-City, again playing as the Columbia River Rooster Tails, came back in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game after trailing 2-0. A string of four consecutive hits revved up a mostly dormant Columbia River offense, beginning with a double by 3B Andy Blake and an RBI single by C Ronaldo Flores to score Blake and get the Rooster Tails on the board at 2-1.
CF Werner Blakely then followed with a perfect bunt down the third base line for a hit and 2B Caleb Ketchup flared a single into right-center to load the bases. That brought 1B Matt Coutney to the plate. He lined a fly ball to left center far enough to score Kevin Bruggeman, who pinch-ran and took over at catcher for Flores, from third to even things up at 2-2.
That still left runners at first and second, where Blakely stood as the potential go-ahead run. A pickoff throw caught Ketchup off of first, though, ending the inning before Columbia River got much chance to take a late lead.
Eugene would take not only a late lead but the final one of the night in the top of the 9th via a hit and three consecutive walks. RF Tanner O’Tremba drew the last walk off reliever Quinton Martinez (1-1), bringing home SS Diego Velasquez with two outs in the last inning for what ended up the winning run. Emeralds hurler Hunter Dula (1-1) finished the game with a 1-2-3 bottom of the 9th to get his first win of 2024.
The Rooster Tails offense had six hits on the night, all from different members of the Columbia River lineup. Coutney tripled to lead off the bottom of the 7th, extending his on-base streak to 18 games and a new hit streak to five games.
Both pitchers taking on the bulk of the work for their teams pitched well. Rooster Tails starter Jorge Marcheco threw five innings of one-run ball and lefty Seth Lonsway struck out eight in 5.1 innings of work for the visitors, but both received no-decisions for their efforts.
The series finale of the six-game set between Columbia River and Eugene has been scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. start Sunday afternoon at Gesa Stadium, where the 2024 edition of the annual Team Photo Giveaway takes place thanks to presenting sponsor AutoZone. The first 500 fans will receive a 2024 Tri-City Dust Devils team photo.
Right-hander Walbert Ureña (1-5, 4.78 ERA) gets the start for Columbia River and southpaw Hayden Wynja (1-3, 5.31 ERA) counters for Eugene. Broadcast coverage of Sunday’s game begins with the pregame show at 1:10 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app, with video coverage on Bally Live and MiLB.tv.
Tickets for Sunday's series finale 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.