Late Inning Magic Act Lifts Hops to 2nd Straight Win
Published on May 13, 2023 under Northwest League (NWL)
Hillsboro Hops News Release
The Hillsboro Hops scored five of their six runs in the ninth and tenth innings Saturday to shock the Spokane Indians 6-5 at Avista Stadium.
Down 3-1 in the ninth, Hillsboro (12-20) took advantage of two hit batters, a pair of hits, a walk and a bobbled ball in left field to tie the game, then watched reliever Junior Mieses pull a Houdini act in the bottom of the ninth, striking out the side after loading the bases with none out.
In the tenth, Ivan Melendez poked a three-run homer over the short porch in right field and the Hops held on for dear life as the Indians plated two in the bottom of the inning and came up a couple feet short of a game-tying home run on the final out of the game.
Both starters pitched well, with Hillsboro's 19-year-old southpaw Yu-Min Lin getting two outs in the sixth inning in his best start of the year, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk. Spokane's Brayan Castillo fanned nine Hops over six full innings, a season-high, allowing just three hits and one walk.
With the game tied 1-1 in the seventh and two outs, Spokane's Zach Kokoska blasted a towering two-run home run to right center off Hillsboro reliever Listher Sosa, his second home run off Sosa in the series and his fourth consecutive game with a home run.
With the Hops down 3-1 in the ninth, Melendez led off and was hit by a Jacob Kostyshock pitch. J.J. D'Orazio lined a single to right and with one out, S.P. Chen hit a ground ball through the hole on the left side for a base hit. Melendez stopped at third, then raced home when Indians' left fielder Juan Guerrero bobbled the ball and had trouble locating it, allowing Chen and D'Orazio to advance to second and third. After Gavin Logan walked on four pitches to load the bases, Indians manager Robinson Cancel took the ball from Kostyshock and brought in his closer Angel Chivilli, who plunked Josh Day with an 0-2 pitch to force in D'Orazio with the tying run.
Chivilli (1-2) fanned the next two batters sending the game to the bottom of the ninth tied 3-3. Mieses (1-0) immediately ran into trouble when he hit Braxton Fulford with his second pitch of the inning, then walked Jordan Beck on five pitches, two of which went to the backstop for wild pitches, moving the winning run to third with none out. Not wishing to take their chances against a batter with 14 hits and 10 RBI's this week (Fernandez), an intentional walk loaded the bases, bringing Guerrero to the plate. After the left fielder fouled off the first pitch, the Hops caught a huge break when an inside fastball grazed the batter. Guerrero turned to home plate umpire Tatum Littleton and said "It hit me", but Littleton said he didn't see it and the at bat continued with no protest from the Tribe coaches. Guerrero flailed at a breaking ball in the dirt away on a 1-2 pitch for the first out. Kokoska followed and swung and missed at the first two pitches before fouling off a pair. With the count 1-2, Mieses burned a fastball across at the knees for the second out of the inning. A.J. Lewis followed and he too got caught looking at a third strike fastball at the knees, fanning on three pitches to send the game into extra innings.
Chivilli came back out to pitch the tenth with Wilderd Patino ghost-running at second for the Hops. Channy Ortiz battled the right hander before bounding the eighth pitch of the at bat past the diving second baseman Lewis into right field to bring Melendez to the plate. The powerful slugger, who opened the series with a 475-plus foot home run to left center, took advantage of the short right field porch at Avista Stadium, hitting what will probably be his shortest home run of the year, just inside the pole and over the five-foot fence, barely 300 feet from home plate to give the Hops a 6-3 lead. It was Melendez's fourth consecutive game with a home run, one shy of tying the Hops record set by Trevor Mitsui in 2015.
Mieses took the ball to the hill again in the bottom half of the tenth and retired the first two batters on a liner to second and fly out to center. That brought Adael Amador to the plate, a 20-year-old, switch-hitting shortstop ranked by MLB Pipeline as the number two prospect in the Rockies system, behind only outfielder Zac Veen. Amador jumped on a 2-0 fastball and cracked a homer over that short fence just out of the reach of right fielder Ortiz and off the caboose to pull the Indians to within one. Then Fulford sent a deep fly ball in the same direction, but with his back at the wall, Ortiz made the catch for the final out of the game.
For the third consecutive game, the Northwest League's worst hitting team outhit its best, as the Hops had eight hits to Spokane's seven. Ortiz, Melendez and Josh Day each had two hits. Ortiz had his third consecutive multi-hit game, with two hits and a walk in five trips to the plate, scoring twice. Melendez extended his current hit streak to seven games and also score two runs. Day recorded only his second multi-hit game of the season. For Spokane, Fernandez continued to rake, going 2 for 3 with a double, RBI and walk. The Cuban outfielder has almost certainly locked up NWL Player Of The Week honors, going 14 for 23 with three homers, two doubles, a triple, 10 RBIs and seven runs scored, raising his season batting average to .305 after a slow start. With two home runs Saturday, the Indians have hit 13 in the series.
The Hops now go for a series split, something that appeared highly unlikely after brutal beatings in the first two games of the week and a loss Thursday when ten runs weren't enough. Eli Saul is scheduled to take the hill against Spokane's Carson Palmquist. The game will air live on Rip City Radio 620 AM with pregame coverage beginning at 12:50 and first pitch at 1:05 p.m.
Northwest League Stories from May 13, 2023
- Emeralds Slug Their Way To Win Over Dust Devils - Tri-City Dust Devils
- Late Inning Magic Act Lifts Hops to 2nd Straight Win - Hillsboro Hops
- Emeralds Win Game 5 Against The Dust Devils - Eugene Emeralds
- Welch/Ramirez Combine for 5 RBI, Sox Win 7-5 - Everett AquaSox
- Missed Opportunities Cost C's on Saturday - Vancouver Canadians
- Largest Crowd of Season Sees Tri-City Go Back-To-Back for Third Straight Win - Tri-City Dust Devils
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