NWL1 Hillsboro Hops

Hops Open 2016 with a Win

Published on June 18, 2016 under Northwest League (NWL1)
Hillsboro Hops News Release


KEIZER, ORE. --- One down, 75 to go. And if the first game is any indication, the 2016 Hillsboro Hops are going to be an entertaining bunch to watch.

Hillsboro --- champions of the Northwest League each of the last two seasons --- opened the fourth season in franchise history with a 6-5 win at Salem-Keizer on Friday night. Second baseman Jeff Smith and designated hitter Luke Lowery each hit home runs, and first baseman Justin Chigbogu (shuh-BOGG-oo) went 2-for-4 with an RBI double and a superb game-ending play.

Salem-Keizer got on the board first against Hops starter Anfernee Benitez in the bottom of the first. The 20-year-old southpaw from Panama allowed a leadoff double to Manuel Geraldo, who later scored on a wild pitch. Benitez settled in thereafter, working through the fifth without allowing another run, though he had help from his defense --- Hops center fielder Marcus Wilson threw Salem-Keizer's Zack Bowers out at the plate in the bottom of the fourth.

By that point, Hillsboro had forged a 3-1 lead, on the strength of Smith's second professional home run, a three-run shot to the opposite field in right in the top of the second. In the fifth inning, Lowery went deep, a two-run blast to left which made it 5-1 Hops.

Left-hander Colin Poche, the Arizona Diamondbacks' 14th-round selection in this month's draft out of Dallas Baptist University, relieved Benitez in the sixth and worked a 1-2-3 frame in his professional debut.

Things didn't go so well for Hops right-hander Trevor Simms, also pitching in his first professional game. He came on for the seventh and allowed a one-out solo home run to the Volcanoes' Gustavo Cabrera. Two singles and two wild pitches came later in the inning, and Salem-Keizer had cut the Hops' lead to 5-4.

Hillsboro got some insurance in the top of the eighth inning when Chigbogu whistled a double to left-center field, scoring Lowery, who had led off the frame with a walk. It was 6-4 Hops.

It turned out to be the difference in the game. After Tucker Ward had worked a scoreless eighth inning for Hillsboro, hard-throwing (and well-traveled) righthander Julio Perez came out of the Hops' pen in the ninth. Just three pitches later, after a Juan Rodriguez triple and a single by Cabrera, Hillsboro's lead was just 6-5.

But Perez retired the next two hitters on a fly ball and a strikeout. With Cabrera still at first base and Salem-Keizer down to its final out, Perez induced Jean Angomas to lift a sky-high popup on the middle of the infield. As the rest of the Hops stood mesmerized, the ball plummeted toward the pitcher's mound. First-baseman Chigbogu-with his 6'1", 260-pound frame-came flying out of nowhere, sprinting across the mound to make a lunging, back-handed, game-ending grab.

Benitez earned the win and Perez got the save in their Hops debuts.

Hillsboro faces Salem-Keizer in the second game of the three-game series on Saturday at 6:35 at Volcanoes Stadium. The radio pregame show begins at 6PM on Rip City Radio 620 AM and www.RipCityRadio.com.

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Northwest League Stories from June 18, 2016


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