Viñeros Vex Eugene, Take Three-Gamer

The Tri-City Dust Devils (8-16 2H) ratcheted up the offense and repelled a late charge from the Eugene Emeralds (11-13 2H) Sunday night, taking down the visitors 6-3 at Gesa Stadium to grab a series win coming out of the All-Star Break.

Playing as Viñeros de Tri-City, the home nine got off to another strong start when DH Cam Williams drove a liner to deep right-center for a two-run double in the bottom of the 1^st inning. 1B Matt Coutney, who doubled to extend the inning, and SS Chad Stevens, reaching after getting hit by a pitch, both scored to put the Viñeros in front.

Tri-City’s 2-0 lead held to the 5^th inning largely due to the efforts of starter Joel Hurtado (7-5). The righty fought through touches of wildness to get through five scoreless innings, giving up four hits and walking three but striking out seven on the way to his third win over Eugene in 2024.

Hurtado then received a major boost of run support in the bottom of the 5^th inning when the Viñeros struck for four runs to build out their advantage. Singles by 2B Will McGillis and CF Joe Redfield sandwiched RF Landon Wallace getting hit by a pitch from Emeralds starter Cesar Perdomo (1-3), loading the bases with no one out and bringing up LF Caleb Ketchup.

Facing reliever Nick Morreale, the now utility player lined a two-run double to the gap in left-center that plated McGillis and Wallace to make it a 4-0 game. RBI singles by Coutney and Stevens followed to stretch the Tri-City lead to 6-0 through five innings.

The Viñeros took a shutout bid to the 8^th inning, with lefty Nick Mondak throwing two scoreless innings of relief to keep Eugene off the board. The Emeralds would not go down without a fight, though, taking advantage of an error on a dropped fly ball to ignite a big inning of their own. Loading the bases with no one out set up an RBI single by LF Rodolfo Nolasco and a bases loaded walk, issued by reliever Roman Phansalkar, to Eugene C Zach Morgan.

Now a 6-2 game and still with the bases loaded and no one out, Tri-City went to the bullpen for closer Luke Murphy. The righty allowed a sacrifice fly off the bat of DH Matt Higgins, scoring SS Diego Velasquez to bring Eugene within three but putting an out on the board. A walk to 3B Thomas Gavello reloaded the bases but Murphy struck out 2B Cole Foster to leave the bases full and keep his team in the lead. The Vanderbilt alum then retired the Emeralds 1-2-3 in the 9^th to clinch both the win and his fourth save of the season.

Matt Coutney (2-for-4, 2B, RBI) and Chad Stevens (2-for-4, RBI) again led the charge offensively, putting together multi-hit games in the middle of the order for the Viñeros. Stevens also extended his hitting streak to ten games with the pair of singles.

Tri-City takes an off day at home before the Everett AquaSox come to town for a six-game series beginning Tuesday night, July 23, at Gesa Stadium. It’s a Coca-Cola Tuesday, with $2.50 21 oz. Coca-Cola products available throughout the night, opening up a busy series that includes Christmas in July on Thursday night, the 25^th, and the Columbia River Rooster Tails returning over the hydroplane race weekend Friday-Sunday.

All games begin at 7:05 p.m. with gates opening an hour earlier at 6:05 p.m. Broadcast coverage of the week’s action will begin with pregame shows at 6:45 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app, with video coverage on Bally Live and MiLB.tv.

Tickets for the Everett 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.