Hops Bash Another 17 Hits, Beat Tri-City 9-2
Published on September 3, 2025 under Northwest League (NWL)
Hillsboro Hops News Release
PASCO, WASH. - For the third time in seven days, the Hillsboro Hops tallied 17 hits in a game, as they pulled away from the Tri-City Dust Devils to win 9-2 in the opener of the season's final series on Tuesday night at Gesa Stadium. The hitting outburst came in support of right-hander Ashton Izzi, who had his best start of the year. Izzi tossed six shutout innings, allowing just one hit, walking one and striking out a career-high nine batters.
Hillsboro had single runs in each of the first four innings off the Dust Devils' Austin Gordon, as Cristofer Torin, Druw Jones, Modeifi Marte and Angel Ortiz each drove one home.
At the same time, Izzi was mowing down the Devils' lineup, retiring the first 11 batters he faced before Kyren Paris --- who has six major-league homers this year with the Angels, and who is with Tri-City on an injury rehab assignment --- hit a booming double to left-center field with two outs in the fourth. After Izzi pitched around cleanup hitter Rio Foster and walked him, Juan Flores took strike three called to end the threat and strand a pair.
The only other runner Izzi allowed came leading off the fifth inning when Slade Caldwell, running back to the warning track, dropped Cole Fontenelle's long fly ball for a two-base error. With his team down 4-0 and nobody out, Fontenelle inexplicably took off early for third base. Izzi stepped off and threw to third baseman Anderdson Rojas, who tagged Fontenelle out. (Fontenelle paid the price for his baserunning blunder, as he injured his left leg trying to elude the tag and had to be removed from the game.) Izzi then retired the final five batters he faced.
Newcomer Kyle Ayers, a right-hander just up from Low-A Visalia, replaced Izzi to start the seventh inning. Ayers worked a scoreless seventh in his Hops debut, but ran into problems in the eighth. Adrian Placencia hit a bad-hop single, and with one out, number-nine hitter Colin Summerhill doubled to put runners at second and third. Anthony Scull hit a fly ball deep enough to center to score Placencia and make it 4-1.
That was it for Ayers, who was replaced by Dawson Brown. Capri Ortiz's infield hit brought Summerhill home to cut the Hops' lead to 4-2, and it brought Paris to the plate. In perhaps the biggest at-bat of the game, Brown induced Paris to ground out to short and end the inning.
In the ninth, the Hops blew the game open, as five of the first six batters in the inning got base hits. Caldwell and Junior Franco each singled, Angel Ortiz had a sacrifice fly, Torin singled and Jansel Luis and Marte had back-to-back doubles.
Marte's two-run double gave him three runs batted in on the night, and he scored the fifth and final run of the inning on a wild pitch. (Tri-City reliever Kyle Roche threw three wild pitches in the ninth, matching a single-inning record for a Hops opponent.)
Brown pitched around a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth to earn his first save. Izzi (3-6 in the Northwest League, 1-2 with the Hops) earned his first win for Hillsboro after being acquired from Everett in the July 24th Diamondbacks-Mariners Josh Naylor trade.
Luis went 4-for-5 and is hitting .306. He's currently listed as second in the Northwest League in batting average, trailing only Eugene's Scott Bandura, who hit .307 prior to his promotion to Double-A. Neither, however, is in position to win the batting title. Spokane outfielder Jared Thomas hit .330 prior to his promotion to Double-A, though he fell 14 plate appearances shy of the 356 PA necessary to qualify. By baseball rule, if you add an 0-for-14 to Thomas' total, his batting average would sit at .3147. Luis would have to hit better than Thomas' adjusted .3147 to win the title.
Torin and Marte each had three hits, and Torin is nine hits shy of tying the Hops' single-season record of 138 set by Gavin Conticello last year. He is also tied with Eugene's Jonah Cox for the league lead in hits with 129. Jones and Franco had two hits apiece, and Jones' two runs scored extended his Hops' single-season record to 76.
The Hops were long ago eliminated from playoff contention, but they still have a shot to finish with the third-best overall record in the league. The Hops are 58-69, tied with Spokane and Everett, and one game worse than Tri-City's mark of 59-68.
Hillsboro's 17-hit attack matched the total they had in back-to-back games last Wednesday and Thursday against Vancouver. Their season-high is 19 (on August 20th at Eugene), and this is the fifth time in 2025 they've tallied 17.
The series continues Wednesday through Saturday nights (each game at 6:30 PM), with the season finale Sunday afternoon at 1:30. Wednesday's radio pregame show begins at 6:15 on Rip City Radio 620AM and at www.RipCityRadio.com.
Northwest League Stories from September 3, 2025
- AquaSox Dominate Canadians in 8-1 Victory - Everett AquaSox
- Death by 17 Cuts: Dust Devils Sliced, Diced by Hops - Tri-City Dust Devils
- Hops Bash Another 17 Hits, Beat Tri-City 9-2 - Hillsboro Hops
- C's Start Final Series of '25 with 8-1 Loss - Vancouver Canadians
- Emeralds Offense Explodes for 8 Runs in the 7th & 8th Inning to Secure a Game 1 Win - Eugene Emeralds
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