NWL: Dust Devils shutout Hops, reclaim division lead

Scoring opportunities were few and far between for the Dust Devils on Friday, but a two-out single by Kyle Overstreet and sacrifice fly by Taylor Kohlwey provided all the offense Tri-City needed in its 2-0 victory over the Hillsboro Hops at Gesa Stadium.

After going hitless in their first four chances with runners in scoring position, Overstreet knocked a two-out line drive through the middle of the infield in the bottom of the sixth to score Chris Baker from third for the game’s first run.

“It felt really good just to help the team, I know I haven’t been swinging the bat well this year and I’ve been hitting a lot of balls at people, so to get that one was awesome,” said Overstreet, who added that calling a shutout behind the plate was even more important to him than driving in the go-ahead run.

The Dust Devils (18-17) kept the line moving into the seventh by executing their game plan to perfection. Nate Easley and Jose Savinon led it off with a walk and a hit, and Josh Magee moved them into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. A routine fly ball by Kohlwey to right scored Easley and gave Tri-City the 2-0 advantage.

“That’s how you draw it up, it doesn’t always go that way, but Magee and Kohlway, that’s what they were supposed to do in that situation,” Dust Devils manager Ben Fritz said. “It was a big insurance run and gave us a little bit of a cushion.”

Lefty Eric Lauer, the Padres third first round pick in the 2016 draft, had his Dust Devils debut get off to a perilous start as Chad Oberacker ripped a wind-aided triple to deep center to lead off the ball game for Hillsboro (17-18). Lauer came back with a strikeout, and on a shallow fly ball, center fielder Buddy Reed threw out Oberacker at the plate for a double play to end the frame.

In his first start for the Dust Devils, Lauer went three scoreless innings and gave up two hits while striking out three.

“It was fun, I was excited to be up here and get going, finally move up a little bit,” said Lauer, who made two starts for the Arizona Summer League Padres before heading to the Tri-Cities. “It was a hell of a way to start off the season here, but a triple’s, a triple’s a triple, so I just tried to forget it, work to the next batter, and try not to let that guy get to home.”

Finding a way off the hook was the story for Dust Devils reliever Jordan Guerrero (3-3) as well, as he survived a leadoff double in the fifth and used two strikeouts in the sixth to get out of a one-out, bases-loaded situation unscathed. Runners reached scoring position in four of the five innings Guerrero hurled, and as a result he had to scatter five hits and a hit batter.

“When it hit the fan, (Guerrero) stepped up,” Fritz said. “Anytime you’re pitching with runners in scoring position that many times, that’s a lot of high-stress pitches. So to keep going back out there and be able to do it over and over again ... it says a lot about his maturity.”

The Boise Hawks used a four-run bottom of the eighth to top the Spokane Indians (17-18) on Thursday, which means the Dust Devils reclaimed the Northwest League North division lead with three games to play in the first half of the season. The Everett AquaSox (16-19) and Vancouver Canadians (16-19) both lost late as well, and are now two games behind the Dust Devils.

“It’s obviously a better situation to be in, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t, but tomorrow’s game is still just as important even if we hadn’t got the job done today,” Fritz said.

The Dust Devils and Hops will play the middle game of their five game set at 7:15 p.m. Saturday. Fourth-round pick Joey Lucchesi (LHP, 0-1, 3.00 ERA) will make his fourth start of the season for Tri-City.

This story was originally published July 22, 2016 at 11:16 PM with the headline "NWL: Dust Devils shutout Hops, reclaim division lead."