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NWL1 Hillsboro Hops

Ems Clinch 2nd Half as Hops Fall Again

September 2, 2016 - Northwest League (NWL1)
Hillsboro Hops News Release


Hillsboro (20-14 2nd half, 39-33 overall) dropped its third game in the last four at Spokane, falling 5-2 Thursday night. The loss, coupled with Eugene's 4-0 victory over Tri-City, means that the Emeralds (25-9, 53-19) will sweep both division titles in the NWL split-season schedule.

It's a decorative title for Eugene and nothing more. There will be no implications as far as the postseason is concerned. Hillsboro will still host the first game of the NWL South Division series on Wednesday night at 7:05 p.m. at Ron Tonkin Field. Game two (and three, if necessary) will be at P.K. Park in Eugene.

In a game that featured a pair of teenaged starting pitchers, Spokane's Tyler Phillips (4-7) was the standout. The 18-year-old from Pennsauken, New Jersey, just a year out of high school, limited the Hops to two runs, one earned, on six hits over 6 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and two walks.

The Hops scored both of their runs in the third inning, tying the game on doubles by Adam Walton and mark Karaviotis before Karaviotis scored on a throwing error by Spokane shortstop Anderson Tejeda.

Hops starting pitcher Mack Lemieux departed after the third inning with a 2-1 lead. Wei-Chieh Huang (2-2) has been very effective in a piggyback role behind Lemieux over the past three weeks, but the Indians got a pair of home runs off the Taiwanese righty. Alex Kowalczyk's two-run homer in the fourth inning gave the Indians the lead for good. Curtis Terry added a leadoff homer in the sixth. Two singles and a wild pitch later, the Indians had a 5-2 lead going into the seventh.

After a pair of walks in the seventh, Phillips gave way to Reid Anderson, who walked the bases full after Ben DeLuzio lined out shaply to center, before getting Jason Morozowski on a harmless fly out to center field to end the threat. Anderson retired six of the final seven batters to notch his first save.

Karaviotis had a pair of hits and reached on a walk, extending his hitting streak to a dozen games, the longest for the Hops this season. Kowalczyk finished with three hits for the Indians, who outhit the Hops 11-7. Spokane has had at least 11 hits in each of the four games of the series so far, after averaging 6.2 hits per game during the series at Ron Tonkin Field in which they were swept last month.

The teams wrap up the five-game series tonight at 6:30 p.m. (6:05 p.m. pregame airtime on Rip City Radio 620 AM) before the Hops return to Ron Tonkin Field for their final home series of the regular season against Eugene starting Saturday night at 5:03 p.m. This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.

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