The Eugene Emeralds and Spokane Indians completed their five-game series Monday night, a 2-1 win for Spokane at home. The Indians won four of the five games, improving to 14-11 on the season while the Ems fall to 8-17, having lost five of their last six contests.
Monday night’s season finale was a pitcher’s duel at its finest. Each offense managed only five hits, two of which were home runs. Indians starter Collin Wiles tossed 4.1 innings allowing one run on three hits, but was not awarded the win since he failed to get through five innings of work. Richard Alvarez (1-1) picked up the win in relief for Spokane, throwing 1.2 innings of flawless relief, not allowing a single Ems hitter to reach base. Sam Wolff and Cody Ege closed out the final three innings, earning their first hold and save of the season, respectively.
Bryan Verbitsky (0-2) pitched well through four innings, but walked four Indians hitters, getting himself into trouble and upping his pitch count. Tayron Guerrero threw four scoreless relief innings and allowed a single hit.
Offensively, the Ems had opportunities to score runs but failed to capitalize. They loaded the bases in the second inning with no outs, ultimately stranding all three runners following a groundout to the pitcher and back-to-back strikeouts. In the eighth, a Marcus Davis double and a Ronnie Richardson walk put runners on first and second with one out. But once again, consecutive strikeouts ended the inning, two of 10 strikeouts for Indians pitching on the night. Pinch hitter Wynton Bernard singled with two outs in the ninth to keep the Ems alive, but was picked off at first base by Ege to end the game.
Eugene’s lone run of the ballgame came courtesy of a fifth innings solo home run off the bat of Henry Charles, his third of the season. Davis, Bernard, Anthony Torres and Malquiel Brito added a hit apiece, but strikeouts and poor situational hitting hindered Eugene’s performance.
Spokane scored both runs in the third inning, first on a solo homer to right field by Janluis Castro, then on a single to center by Alberto Triunfel, scoring Kevin Torres who got into scoring position via a base on balls, wild pitch and fielder’s choice.
The Ems have Tuesday off and return to the field Wednesday night against Seattle Mariners Single-A affiliate Everett AquaSox at PK Park. The game will open a five-game set. The Ems handled Everett last year, taking the season series eight games to four. But the AquaSox are a much improved team this season, as they’ll enter the series as the Northwest League’s North division leaders at 18-7.