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NWL Eugene Emeralds

Emeralds Split Doubleheader Against Vancouver

April 21, 2024 - Northwest League (NWL)
Eugene Emeralds News Release


EUGENE, OR - The luck from game one didn't translate to its successor, but Eugene managed to split Saturday's doubleheader at P.K Park.

Game one

It's becoming quite clear that Eugene doesn't need any help winning games.

Whether it's from offensive explosion, dominance on the mound, or a deadly combination of both, any team that has fatefully run into the now 11-2 Emeralds has been forced to play near-perfect baseball.

Vancouver, once again, was reminded of that in their 3-1 game-one loss to the Merry Pranksters.

Tanner O'Tremba gave Eugene the lead in the bottom of the sixth. His chopper to third induced a bad throw from third-base, which brought home pinch-runner Turner Hill to give Eugene the go-ahead run.

One slight error, one missed throw in an otherwise seamless game, and the C's fell.

It was a stark example of luck in a game where Eugene had all of it.

Looking to rebound from a pair of lackluster starts, Manuel Mercedes was on the bump for Eugene and had by far his best outing of the year. He worked in the mid 90's and located his slider well, allowing just one run over four innings of work.

Ryan Jennings - a 2022 fourth rounder - got the start for Vancouver and battled through a day of poor command. He worked in 95-97 with his fastball and flashed plus secondary pitches, but walked a whopping six batters in three innings.

Jennings loaded the bases in the first and second but - aided by some terrific Vancouver defense - remained unscathed.

His third inning of work wasn't much better, Jennings walked a pair but located pitches when needed. His day was done after the third as the righty allowed just one hit but the plethora of walks put a damper on his otherwise average outing.

Vancouver opened the scoring in the fourth, a walk, and a single brought up Jaden Rudd who singled in a run.

The Merry Pranksters didn't trail for long. Two pitches into the fourth, O'Tremba launched his first bomb of the year off the scoreboard in left to knot it at one.

Southpaw Matt Mikulski entered with runners on first and second in the fifth, but located pitches well, inducing soft contact to strand the pair.

Matt Higgins doubled to lead off the fifth but was stranded on a ~ questionable~ call at first on a Justin Wishikowski groundout.

The Merry Pranksters went 2-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners... it didn't matter.

Similar to Eugene, Vancouver couldn't get anything going with runners in scoring position. Mikulski allowed a walk followed by a ground-rule double but retired the next three batters and came bounding off the mound in celebration.

There was no chance Eugene was losing this game.

O'Tremba chopper took third baseman Jeffrey Wehler to his right, his desperation throw was nowhere close.

Eugene tacked on another as reliever Justin Kelly's outing was less than ideal. Kelly was tagged with the loss after allowing a pair of runs. McDaniel's second knock of the day brought home O'Tremba giving Mikulski all the insurance he would need

Mikulski retired Vancouver in order, sending fans - and the Merry Pranksters - into game two happily.

Game Two

The energy from game one did not transfer to its successor.

Eugene started off slow but eventually caught its stride, the upset bid was unfortunately too late in the 7-5 loss.

Looking to continue his resurgence from a 2-9 record a season ago, Seth Lonsway got the start in game two and had a less than stellar day.

He blanked Vancouver in his first two innings of work, but ran into trouble in the third, coughing up a pair of runs via a wild pitch and C's single.

Vancouver added another in the fourth as Lonsway struggled.

Rafael Sanchez, on the other hand, dominated for the entirety of his outing. Quinn McDaniel's first-inning single was the Ems only knock through the first four innings.

Lonsway's night was over in the fifth after allowing three straight knocks to open the inning. His successor, Tyler Vogel, fared much better finishing the game for Eugene.

The first pitch of Vogel's outing was the only run he allowed. Nick Goodwin launched an opposite-field bomb that stretched Vancouver's lead to seven.

Eugene scratched a run across the board in the fifth via a Garret Frechette sac-fly. Thomas Gavello doubled to lead off the inning and came in to score, his double was the first of four extra-base hits on the night for the Emeralds.

Eugene added three doubles in the sixth, the second of which came with a pair of runners on as Andrew Kachel cleared the bases.

Justin Wishikowski added a two-bagger of his own and - for a moment - the comeback looked conceivable.

Anders Tolhurst entered in the ninth and allowed back-to-back knocks to Eugene which brought the tying run to the dish in the seventh.

Both of Eugene's ensuing batters went down on strikes as Tolhurst recorded his first save of the season.

Eugene will go for the series-win Sunday evening at 6:05. Dylan Cumming (1-0 0.82 ERA 11.1 IP) will toe the rubber against Pat Gallagher (0-0, 6.23 ERA 4.1 IP).

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Northwest League Stories from April 21, 2024


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