Links   E-mail             Print              Comments Advertisement

EUGENE, Ore. -- Hits remained hard to come by for the Yakima Bears on Thursday, while home runs remained a big spark for the Eugene Emeralds.

Sawyer Carroll's two-run homer in the first inning and Cole Figueroa's grand slam in the eight -- Eugene's league-leading 36th and 37th long balls of the season -- powered the home team to an 11-5 victory in the second game of the five-day series at Civic Stadium.

The Bears produced three singles through seven innings and two runs in the eighth inning were unearned.

First baseman Anthony Smith turned in one of his best nights for Yakima, going 3-for-5 with two runs scored.

The Bears trailed
3-0 after two innings but pulled within a run in the fourth inning on Ryan Babineau's RBI single and a wild pitch that plated Smith.

Yakima later slipped back to a 6-2 deficit but rallied again in the top of the eighth. The Bears got only a single from Smith but they took advantage of two walks, a wild pitch and two of Eugene's three errors to cut the margin to 6-4.

But Yakima had no more comebacks after Eugene erupted for five runs in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by Figueroa's grand slam.

Yakima starter T.J. Hose (3-3) yielded a season-high six earned runs in his 4 1/3 innings, and finished with five strikeouts and five walks.

Eugene's Nick Vincent (3-1) struck out the side in the first and fanned six in five innings, giving the right-hander 15 strikeouts in his last two outings.

Yakima's first three pitchers -- Hose, Jason Durst and Ricardo Taveras -- combined for 10 strikeouts.