Tri-City Eviscerates Eugene in Post-Break Return
The suddenly roaring offense of the Tri-City Dust Devils (7-15 2H) returned from baseball’s All-Star break rested and still red-hot Friday night, bashing the ball around and out of the park in a 12-1 thrashing of the Eugene Emeralds (10-12 2H) in front of 2,165 gathered at Gesa Stadium. Trailing
The suddenly roaring offense of the Tri-City Dust Devils (7-15 2H) returned from baseball’s All-Star break rested and still red-hot Friday night, bashing the ball around and out of the park in a 12-1 thrashing of the Eugene Emeralds (10-12 2H) in front of 2,165 gathered at Gesa Stadium.
Trailing 1-0 after a bases loaded walk in the top of the 2nd inning brought in what turned out to be Eugene’s only run on the night, Tri-City struck for three to take a lead they would never relinquish in the bottom of the frame. DH Cam Williams hit a soaring drive over the fence down the left field line for a solo home run, tying the game 1-1, and LF Landon Wallace socked a two-run double to left for a 3-1 advantage.
Williams finished just a double shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with a walk and driving in a pair of runs on the night. CF Joe Redfield also had a 3-for-4 night, driving in a run and scoring two of his own.
A five-run bottom of the 5th provided the Dust Devils major breathing room, with the first six reaching base before the Emeralds recorded an out. 1B Matt Coutney struck the big blow, blasting a pitch from Eugene lefty Joe Whitman (2-1) deep over the right field wall for a three-run homer that pushed the lead to 6-1. It grew to 7-1 later in the frame on an RBI triple by Williams, who himself scored quickly on a wild pitch to make it an 8-1 Tri-City advantage.
3B Chad Stevens, fresh off Northwest League Player of the Week honors for his brilliant week in Hillsboro last week, had two hits with his second a two-run single in the 6th that shoved the lead out to 10-1. A 7th inning RBI hit by Redfield and an 8th inning sacrifice fly off the bat of 2B Caleb Ketchup closed out the scoring for the Dust Devils, whose true team saw all nine members of the starting lineup have at least one hit in the ballgame.
The reigning Northwest League Pitcher of the Week, Tri-City starter Chris Clark, went four innings and allowed only a run on two hits to keep the visitors at bay. Reliever Glenn Albanese, Jr. (1-0), threw two perfect innings behind him with four strikeouts to get the win, and fellow hurlers Jose Fermin (2 IP, 4 Ks) and Roman Phansalkar (1 IP, 1K) combined to finish a five scoreless inning effort from the Dust Devils bullpen.
Game two of the three-game series between Tri-City and Eugene takes place at 7:05 p.m. Saturday night at Gesa Stadium, where postgame fireworks will light up the sky thanks to TOYOTA. A pair of right-handers face off with Ryan Costeiu (0-3, 2.08 ERA) going for the Dust Devils and Manuel Mercedes (3-6, 4.34 ERA) countering for the Emeralds.
Broadcast coverage begins with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app with video coverage on Bally Live and MiLB.tv.
Tri-City stays home after the short series for a full six-game set with the Everett AquaSox beginning Tuesday, July 23 and going through the weekend. Tickets for the Everett series, including the Columbia River Rooster Tails return for hydro race weekend, 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.