Spokane Indians lose fourth straight, fall to Eugene in 10 innings
EUGENE – Ramsey Romano singled home Chris Singleton in the bottom of the 10th inning and the Eugene Emeralds beat the Spokane Indians 3-2 in the first of a five-game Northwest League series at Memorial Stadium on Friday.
The Indians (9-7, 25-29) have lost four straight.
Singleton struck out to lead off the 10th against Joe Barlow (4-1), but reached on a passed ball by catcher Isaias Quiroz. Jared Young sacrificed Singleton to second and Brandon Hughes walked. Austin Filiere struck out, but Romano delivered a single up the middle to plate Singleton with the game-winner.
The Emeralds (7-9, 28-26) broke on top in the third inning. Indians starter Hever Bueno hit leadoff batter Zach Davis, who promptly stole second. Singleton grounded out to third and Davis moved up a base, then scored on Young’s line-drive single to center.
Bueno then issued a four-pitch base on balls to Hughes. After a visit to the mound, Filiere’s hard grounder to third deflected off Kole Enright’s glove and into left field and Young scampered home to make it 2-0. Bueno recovered to strike out Romano to end the inning.
Eugene made a pitching change in the fifth, and the Indians finally got on the board. Enright led off with a single off Erich Uelman, then Cristian Inoa and Isaias Quiroz walked to load the bases. Miguel Aparicio grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, but Enright scored on the play.
Enright led off the seventh with his third home run of the season to tie it at 2-2.
With two down in the ninth, Inoa reached on an infield single and Quiroz walked to bring up Aparicio. Aparicio came through with a single to left, but left fielder Jose Gonzalez came up firing and catcher Michael Cruz applied the tag to nail Inoa at the plate for the third out of the inning.
Bueno allowed two runs on four hits and three walks with seven strikeouts over five innings. Alex Speas struck out four in two innings, allowing just one hit.
The teams pick the series back up on Saturday at 7:05 p.m.