Largest Crowd of Season Sees Dust Devils Walk-off Hops

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NWL Tri-City Dust Devils

Largest Crowd of Season Sees Dust Devils Walk-off Hops

May 17, 2025 - Northwest League (NWL)
Tri-City Dust Devils News Release


Tri-City Dust Devils' Ben Gobbel celebrates win
Tri-City Dust Devils' Ben Gobbel celebrates win
(Tri-City Dust Devils)

PASCO - The Tri-City Dust Devils (19-17) had no walk-off wins coming in to their six-game series with the Hillsboro Hops (21-16), but 3B Ben Gobbel's line drive to center scoring DH Ryan Nicholson gave them both a 3-2 win over Hillsboro Friday night and their second walk-off of the week.

The 3,011 fans who came out to Gesa Stadium for School Night presented by Pahlisch Homes comprised the largest crowd of the 2025 season to date, and they went home happy thanks to Gobbel's third double of the night. The infielder, with Nicholson at first via a leadoff walk, struck a soft line drive off a pitch from Hops reliever Carlos Rey (1-1) to center field. Hillsboro CF Druw Jones made a sliding attempt at catching the liner, but it eluded him and bounced behind him. Nicholson sprinted all the way around, sliding into home before Jones' throw got to the plate and setting off a joyous celebration both on the field and in the stands.

Leonard Garcia (4-2) got the win in relief for the Dust Devils, going 2.1 innings and striking out two. Earlier, Tri-City got its first two runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning on back-to-back RBI doubles from Gobbel and C Juan Flores. Gobbel's second RBI ended the game and clinched at least a series split for the home nine, giving them two chances to win the series over the weekend.

DUST DEVILS NOTES

-Both starting pitchers gave their teams great performances but received no-decisions. Tri-City righty Austin Gordon bounced back from a rough go in Everett by throwing six innings, giving up only one run to the Hops on five hits and striking out five while issuing only two free passes via hit-by-pitches. Hillsboro's John West threw seven strong innings, giving up two runs on five hits.

-Ben Gobbel became the first Dust Devil to collect three doubles in a game since Jason Pineda doubled thrice against Spokane in an August 31, 2019 matchup at Gesa Stadium. Tri-City won that game 8-7 on the way to playing for the Northwest League title that year. Pineda would get released during the COVID shutdown in 2020, later transitioning to the mound and continuing his pro career in independent ball (including in the upcoming Pioneer League season as a member of the Great Falls Voyagers).

-The Dust Devils have won all three games this week by a single tally, moving to 6-5 in one-run games this year and 4-1 in one-run games with the Hops.

KEY-PING IT GOING

Tri-City faces Hillsboro in game five of their six-game set at 6:30 p.m. Saturday night at Gesa Stadium, with postgame fireworks lighting the sky above the Tri. Right-hander Keythel Key (0-2, 5.73 ERA) takes the mound for the Dust Devils, with righty Logan Clayton (0-1, 8.56 ERA) going for the Hops.

The game can be seen (MiLB Zone of Bally Sports Live) and listened to (dustdevilsbaseball.com and the MiLB app) for free. Broadcast coverage begins with the Dust Devils Pregame Show at 6:10 p.m.

For tickets to the weekend's games against Hillsboro and for all 2025 Dust Devils home games, visit the official ticket site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.

Check out the Tri-City Dust Devils Statistics




Images from this story

Tri-City Dust Devils' Ben Gobbel celebrates win
Tri-City Dust Devils' Ben Gobbel celebrates win
   



Northwest League Stories from May 17, 2025


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