Triple Double: Two For Varsho

The Hillsboro Hops got to triple their pleasure with their third walk-off win of the season.
Daulton Varsho led off the ninth inning with a triple and scored the winning run on a passed ball as the Hops scored a 6-5 come-from-behind win over the Eugene Emeralds at Ron Tonkin Field Thursday night.

The victory evens the three-game series against the defending league champs and puts Hillsboro back into a three-way thie for first in the Northwest League South Division with the Ems and the Boise Hawks at 15-13.
Eugene had taken a 5-1 lead before the Hops plated four runs in the fifth inning, the final three scoring on Varsho's bases-clearing triple into the right field corner.
Varsho, the son of former major leaguer Gary Varsho, was playing in front of his father for the first time as a professional. Varsho was in town after attending the AAA All-Star game in Tacoma the previous night as a scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The younger Varsho finished with three hits in five at bats, raising his team-leading batting average to .349.
The Hops got another strong collective effort from the bullpen as Luis Castillo, Brian Shaffer, Matt Peacock and Erbert Gonzalez combined to hold the Emeralds scoreless over the final four innings. Gonzalez retired the side in order in the ninth with two strikeouts to earn his first win with the Hops.Yapson Gomez was charged with the loss, facing two batters in the ninth.
Neither starting pitcher was particularly effective. Hillsboro's Mitch Aker and Eugene's Enrique De Los Rios each gave up five earned runs in 4 2/3 innings. 
Eugene got its own version of the triple-double as outfielder Brandon Hughes had three doubles off Aker. The 16th-round draft pick out of Michigan State is batting .471 after five games as a pro. Miguel Amaya hit his second home run of the year, both against the Hops, a two-run shot in the third inning that gave Eugene a 4-1 lead. Hughes' third double of the night drove in a run in the fifth to put the Ems up 5-1 before the Hops rallied in the bottom of the inning.
The series finale begins at 7:05 p.m. Friday night with radio coverage on Rip City Radio 620 AM (pregame 6:35 p.m.) and live television broadcast on Comcast SportsNet NW.