Tri-City Hindered By, Held Scoreless in Hillsboro

June 15, 2024 - Northwest League (NWL)
Tri-City Dust Devils News Release

The offense of the Tri-City Dust Devils (24-35) again struggled to find its footing Friday night against the Hillsboro Hops (31-28), who held the visitors to three hits and won 5-0 at Hillsboro Ballpark to clinch a series win with two games remaining.

The hits put runners in scoring position for Tri-City, giving the team opportunities to score with less than two out. 1B Matt Coutney led off the top of the 2nd with an opposite field double to left, and CF Werner Blakely and LF Jorge Ruiz strung together back-to-back hits with one out in the 8th. All three were stranded by a Hillsboro pitching staff that has allowed a total of five runs in the first four games of the series.

Dust Devils starter Jorge Marcheco (2-4) went toe-to-toe with Hops hurler Roman Angelo (1-2) for the first four innings but ran into an ambush in the bottom of the 5th. Back-to-back big hits from LF Jack Hurley (two-run double) and CF Andrew Pintar (two-run home run) put four runs on the board in two swings, ending Marcheco's night and handing the Hops a lead they would not relinquish. DH Neyfy Castillo later added a 6th inning RBI single to round out the scoring.

On the mound, relievers Ryan Langford and Jared Southard threw scoreless innings to help Tri-City's cause.

Game five of the six-game series gets an earlier start time with a 4:05 p.m. first pitch scheduled at Hillsboro Ballpark. The Dust Devils hand the ball to right-hander Walbert Ureña (1-5, 4.50 ERA), who threw seven scoreless innings against Hillsboro the last time he faced them (May 19 at Gesa Stadium). The starter for the Hops has not been announced at press time.

Broadcast coverage of Saturday's game begins with the pregame show at 3:45 p.m. both here and on the MiLB app.

After the six-gamer in Hillsboro concludes the Dust Devils return home to host the Vancouver Canadians for a seven-game series that begins with a doubleheader of seven-inning games starting at 4:15 p.m. Tickets for the Vancouver series 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 the team's official ticketing site, dustdevilsbaseball.com.

Tri-City Dust Devils' Werner Blakely in action

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