The Eugene Emeralds lost its fifth straight game Saturday night at the hands of the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. Starting pitcher Pat Young was virtually un-hittable, yielding one hit, a third inning double by Edwin Moreno.
The Volcanoes did their damage in the third inning against starter Coby Cowgill. Ty Ross got it started with a base hit and advanced to second on an error by left fielder Malquiel Brito. Tyler Hollick advanced Ross to third on a bunt, and Brian Ragira replaced him at third with an RBI triple, breaking the scoreless tie. Tyler Horan singled to right allowing Ragira to score and add to the lead. Two batters later, Blake Miller lined a base hit to left that scored Horan from second. Cowgill walked the bases loaded with two outs, but escaped and stopped the bleeding.
Young continued to effectively take the bat out of the hands of Ems hitters, retiring nine straight before being replaced after six innings.
“His delivery was kinda funky, and with that it’s deceptive,” said Ems manager Jim Gabella of Young. “It’s not like he was overpowering with a 96 mile per hour fastball. He had average stuff but just that deception with that delivery makes it harder to hit sometimes, it’s harder to see a ball that way. He was funky tonight.”
Young used a 3/4 arm slot and slung pitches accurately and changed speeds often, keeping batters off balance.Young came in to Saturday night’s game sporting a 0.95 ERA and 1.129 WHIP through six starts. The six-foot-five-inch Villanova product was a 13th round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants this spring.
Cowgill lasted 4.2 innings in the loss, giving up three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and three walks. Cowgill had struggled in his previous two starts, giving up a total of nine runs (seven earned) in 10.1 innings pitched.
“You get two hits you’re not gonna win many games,” Gabella said. “We’ll come out tomorrow and keep working and who knows, we might get 15 [hits] tomorrow, you just never know. Every day’s a different day. It depends on who’s on the bump there. Tonight they threw three pretty good pitchers at us and they kept us at bay and that happens, that’s baseball.”
The Ems have scored five runs in the last five games and have scored 223 on the season, ranking them last in the Northwest League. Eugene’s team batting average of .223 is also the lowest in the league.
The Emeralds’ elimination number is down to three, meaning any combination of three losses and wins by either the Boise Hawks or Hillsboro Hops will eliminate the Ems from postseason contention.