Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008

Peisel ignites Dust Devils attack

By Kevin Anthony, Herald staff writer

Ryan Peisel figured he was due.

Likewise for the Tri-City fans, who after 3 1/2 innings at Gesa Stadium on Tuesday night feared they might be witness to yet another sloppy Dust Devils defeat.

The Eugene Emeralds had built a three-run lead, twice getting the leadoff batter aboard on an infield error and bringing him around.

But Peisel, stuck in the No. 9 hole with a .184 average, delivered the big blow in the big inning, tripling in a trio of runs during the six-run fourth and propelling the Dust Devils to a 12-4 win in the second of a five-game set with Eugene.

"That triple was big; it's what got us going," said manager Fred Ocasio, who got his 100th win with the Dust Devils. "Of late, (Peisel's) been getting some quality at-bats; they just hadn't been hits."

"I was just trying to put a good swing on it," said Peisel, who with one swing nearly matched his previously season total of four RBIs. "It's kind of one of those things where the cage work you put in starts paying off."

It was the second straight win for Tri-City (25-30) coming off a five-game losing streak and, symmetrically, the second straight loss for the Emeralds (29-26) after a five-game winning streak.

The Dust Devils' inconsistent offense -- they rank sixth in the Northwest League in hitting at .252 -- racked up 12 hits and twice batted around on a double-chalupa night (ballpark freebie for scoring six runs). Charlie Blackmon led the way, going 3-for-6 and scoring a pair of runs.

With two of the Northwest League's better starting pitchers on the hill, it figured to be a lean night for runs.

Tri-City starter Jonnathan Aristil has been remarkably consistent, only twice allowing three earned runs in an outing and ranking fifth in the NWL with a 2.70 ERA.

Eugene's Nick Vincent also has been solid, sporting a 3.31 ERA and having allowed no more than two runs in each of his five starts since moving into the rotation July 17.

Neither pitcher made it past the fourth, though only one of the three runs given up by Aristil was earned.

Vincent breezed through the first two innings before the Dust Devils found their batting eye and made him labor a bit. They worked him for a pair of walks in the third, only to come away empty when Jordan Pacheco's soft liner to third was caught for the third out.

Austin Rauch walked to lead off the fourth, the start of a big inning for Tri-City. He came around on a single by Dustin Rose and two fielder's choice plays, the second of which finished with everyone safe.

Thomas Field then singled to load the bases, which Peisel promptly unloaded, lofting a 1-2 offering into the gap in right-center.

Blackmon followed Peisel with a liner to the same gap for a double, his 15th on the year to tie for the league lead. He touched home on Erik Wetzel's sacrifice fly.

Peisel, whose walk in the third started Vincent's decline, said extending the third inning with a couple of walks set the stage.

"It helped, putting him in the stretch a little bit, getting him out of his comfort zone," he said, adding that it also helped that the Dust Devils got in their own comfort zone facing Vincent for the second and third time through the lineup.

"We were swinging at the pitcher's pitch," Ocasio said of the first two innings. "We want to make the pitcher pitch. Be patient and you get good pitches to hit."

The Dust Devils tacked on five more runs in the eighth, more than enough to back Sean Jarrett (2-3) and Carlos Luna's combined four shutout innings of relief.

Notes

The Emeralds had two hitting streaks extended: Blake Tekotte reached nine games with his third-inning single, and Angel Mercado 15 games with a single in the fourth. The longest hitting streaks in Tri-City's lineup were four games for Pacheco and Scott Robinson. Pacheco went 0-for-2 with two walks, but Robinson kept his alive with an RBI double in the eighth. ... Former Oregon State outfielder Daniel Robertson, who ranks at or near the top of the NWL in no fewer than eight offensive categories, went 4-for-5 for Eugene to improve his league-leading average to .377. ... The two teams combined to steal eight bases without a single runner getting caught.