Spokane Indians rally in bottom of ninth on Jake Snider grand slam, lose to Hillsboro in 10th 9-6

After a dramatic ninth-inning comeback by the home team, the Hillsboro Hops rallied for four runs in the top of the 10th to beat the Spokane Indians 9-6 at Avista Stadium on Saturday, taking a 3-2 lead in the series. 

The first-place Indians (29-23) remained one game ahead of second-place Eugene (29-25) with 12 games to go in the Northwest League first half. Third-place Hillsboro improved to 27-27, three games behind Spokane.

The Indians entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 5-1. They loaded the bases with no outs on singles by Robby Martin Jr and Cole Carrigg wrapped around a walk by Jose Cordova.

Dyan Jorge and Kyle Karros struck out, but Jake Snider lined a 3-1 fastball over the short wall in the right field corner for a game-tying grand slam, his fourth home run of the season.

The good fortune didn’t last into extra-innings. Carson Skipper took over on the hill for Spokane and immediately ran into trouble, allowing base hits to four of the first five batters of the inning, leading to four runs.

The Indians mustered a run in the bottom half on a sacrifice fly, but with two down and one on, Jose Cordova was thrown out by the pitcher on a bunt attempt.

The Hops went right to work on Indians starter Blake Adams in the first inning. Jean Walters led the game off with a single, Jack Hurley drew a walk and Andrew Pintar reached on catcher’s interference. That brought up Gavin Conticello, who drilled a fastball off the base of the wall in straight center field for a two-run double. 

A run came in on a sacrifice fly, then Manny Pena singled to bring in another to make it 4-0 just six batters into the game.

Adams tossed a 1-2-3 second inning, but Pintar crushed the second pitch of the third inning off the face of the caboose in right center and Hillsboro went up 5-0. 

Meanwhile, Hillsboro starter Roman Angelo had little trouble keeping the Spokane offense off the scoreboard. He retired the first seven Indians batters in order en route to tossing six scoreless innings. He gave up just three hits and struck out seven.

Adams got better later in the game, allowing just two hits over his final three innings and retiring his final four batters. Unfortunately for the 23-year-old starter and the Indians, the damage had already been done. 

Adams was able to get through six innings but allowed five runs on nine hits and a walk with six strikeouts. He threw 88 pitches, 65 for strikes. 

The Indians finally pushed a run across in the seventh against reliever Listher Sosa. With two down and runners on the corners, Jorge’s bouncer up the middle glanced off the glove of a diving Pena at second and into short center field for an RBI single.