The Hillsboro Hops kicked off June with a 14-3 victory over Tri-City Dust Devils. This win makes back-to-back victories for the Hops over Tri-City. The Hops won this Tuesday by a score of 4-3.
The game at Gesa Stadium in Pasco, Washington saw a scoreless opening inning. The action would open up in the second inning with a three-run homer from A.J. Vukovich. The deep drive to left center field would be Vukovich’s third home run this season. The Dust Devils would respond in the bottom of the inning with their own home run. Mike Peabody would hit his fourth home run of the season to make the score 3-2, with Hillsboro still in the lead.
The third inning would open with the Dust Devils substituting pitcher Nick Mondak for Hayden Seig. Seig would have a tough start to the inning, allowing two singles and hitting a batter in the first three batters of the order. After a double play on the next hit, Tristan English would hit a single that allowed Ryan Bliss to score the only run of the inning.
With quick fourth and fifth innings, the scoring would open back up in the top of the sixth inning. The Hops would score five runs off six hits to extend their lead. Singles from Ramses Malave, Tim Tawa, Adrian Del Castillo, and Danny Oriente paired with doubles from A.J. Vukovich and Ryan Bliss would put the Hops up 9-2. Headed into the bottom of the inning, Jose Guzman would score for the Dust Devils off the back of a forceout from Caleb Roberts and Ryan Bliss. Scott Randall would close out the inning with a strikeout on Dust Devils batter Gabe Matthews.
The batters for Hillsboro weren’t done as the game entered its late stages. In the seventh inning, Caleb Roberts would pop his second home run of the year, earning another three runs for the Hops. Hillsboro would be leading 12-3 heading into the seventh inning stretch. Julio Frias would step in at pitcher for Hillsboro, and Frias was on fire. Frias would throw 14 pitches and strike out three of the four batters for the Dust Devils in the seventh inning.
After a scoreless eighth inning, Hillsboro would find two more runs at the top of the ninth. A walk with bases loaded, plus a single hit by Adrian Del Castillo as the very next batter would put Hillsboro up 14-3. Two groundouts and a strikeout would close the inning and seal the victory for the Hops.
Hillsboro and Tri-City will have their third game this week on Thursday, June 2nd at Gesa Stadium with a start time of 6:30 p.m.
Northwest Sports Desk 