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NWL Tri-City Dust Devils

Marcheco, Please: Righty Great Again for Dust Devils in Victory Over Hops

July 26, 2023 - Northwest League (NWL)
Tri-City Dust Devils News Release


Tri-City Dust Devils' Jorge Marcheco on the mound
Tri-City Dust Devils' Jorge Marcheco on the mound
(Tri-City Dust Devils)

Starter Jorge Marcheco twirled a third terrific start in his Gesa Stadium debut for the Tri-City Dust Devils (11-14 2H, 45-46), taking a shutout to the 7th inning in a 6-1 win over the Hillsboro Hops (9-16 2H, 33-58) Tuesday night in front of 2,195 at Gesa Stadium.

Marcheco (2-0) had command of the strike zone, walking none and striking out six in his ninth win of 2023 between Tri-City and Single-A Inland Empire. He gave up only one run, a solo home run to Hillsboro C Christian Cerda in the top of the 7th and allowed five hits in 6.1 innings of work for his third straight quality start at the High-A level.

The 20-year-old righty had run support to help early on, the Dust Devils scoring at their first opportunity. LF Joe Stewart drew a leadoff walk, moving to second on an infield single by SS Arol Vera and taking third when the throw to first went wide. 1B Matt Coutney then drove him in on a double to left field sailing on the wind and landing on the warning track before one-hopping the wall.

The home nine then worked an odd pattern for the night, scoring in the 3rd, 5th and 7th innings to bolster the lead. CF D'Shawn Knowles walked to lead off the 3rd, going from first to third on a throwing error by Hops starter Yilber Diaz (1-8) on a pickoff attempt. Vera then hit a sac fly to right, scoring Knowles to give Tri-City a 2-0 lead. The switch-hitting Bahamian scored a second time in the 5th, getting aboard via a one-out single. A stolen base and two wild pitches later, the Dust Devils led 3-0.

Things got tight in the top of the 7th with Cerda's longball. RF Kristian Robinson followed with a single to left, moving up to second on a balk. Marcheco then induced a fly out before calling it a night, with manager Jack Howell calling on lefty Dylan Phillips to preserve a 3-1 lead. Phillips got to work immediately, picking off Robinson at second before he even threw a pitch and striking out DH Kevin Graham to end the inning.

Tri-City's run in the 7th came in after DH Casey Dana singled sharply up the middle with one out. Knowles hit a soft grounder to third that was played well by Hillsboro 3B Manuel Peña, who grabbed it and threw to second. The throw, though, handcuffed 2B Andrew Pintar and bounced off him toward the left side of the infield. Dana, seeing no one was covering third base, grabbed an extra 90 feet on the error, scoring the next at-bat when Stewart grounded out to the right side for a 4-1 Dust Devils lead.

Two more runs came in for Tri-City in the 8th. 2B Adrian Placencia drew a leadoff walk and Coutney was hit by a pitch, putting two on with no one out. Placencia stole third to put runners on the corners, and a wild pitch both gave him time to score to make it 5-1 and move Coutney up to second. 3B Werner Blakely then singled through the right side to plate Coutney for the final 6-1 margin.

Reliever Erik Martinez, entering in a 4-1 game with two outs in the 8th, got the final four outs for his sixth save of the season. Dust Devils pitching did not issue a walk or hit a batter the entire night, striking out a total of eight Hops batters in another strong performance.

Tri-City and Hillsboro meet up for game two of their series at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday night at Gesa Stadium, where it's Weenie Wednesday presented by Vern's Food Service. $2 hot dogs will be available to fans throughout the ballgame for all to enjoy.

The Dust Devils have scheduled right-hander Bryce Osmond (2-6, 4.63 ERA) to start, with the Hops selecting righty Joe Elbis (0-3, 6.09 ERA) to go to the mound. Broadcast coverage begins with the pregame show at 6:45 p.m., both here and at the MiLB First Pitch app.

Tickets for both Wednesday night's game and the series, which includes this weekend's return of the Columbia River Rooster Tails on Columbia Cup weekend in the Tri-Cities, are on sale now with special ticket rates available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit dustdevilsbaseball.com, call the team office at (509) 544-8789, or visit the team office (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on game nights, or Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. otherwise).

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Tri-City Dust Devils' Jorge Marcheco on the mound
Tri-City Dust Devils' Jorge Marcheco on the mound
   



Northwest League Stories from July 26, 2023


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