“Baseball is back!” The Hillsboro Hops organization said throughout the opening day ceremonies at Ron Tonkin Field on Monday. It was perfect timing on the longest day of the year so far, and with a sold-out crowd of 5,093 Hop-heads in attendance. While it is great to have baseball back, complete with pastoral good cheer and a community mustered behind something fun and inclusive, the first week of the Northwest League season was a mixed bag for the team.
First, the good. The June 17 opener against the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes showcased the roster’s balanced batting rotation, with 11 hits and a high RBI count. This included a three-run homer for Jeff Smith in the second inning and a two-run blast over the left field wall for Luke Lowery in the sixth. Base running was consistent throughout the week, with plenty of stolen bases and RBIs off of patient single-base hits from the top of the order. Of particular note were Justin Chigbogu—with three walks, one stolen bag, and two doubles in four games—and center fielder Marcus Wilson with three stolen bases and two RBIs.
Chigbogu’s double in the sixth inning on Tuesday night, followed by his own score off a single, solidified the win on Tuesday versus the Eugene Emeralds and illustrated what it takes to stay afloat at this level of play: offensive drive.
That brings us to the bad. For the 2015 season, Hillsboro finished dead last in offensive stats despite being crowned league champions for the second straight year. That trend has spilled into the opening of this season, with an average of only three runs per game so far. Monday’s home opener in Hillsboro saw a 6-0 shutout win for the Emeralds, with the Hops only getting serious at the plate in the last two innings.
Meanwhile, pitching issues have yet to be ironed out. The Hops somehow lost 6-0 that night with 15 strikeouts and zero walks. Much credit for those stats goes to starter Taylor Wright, with nine of those strikeouts in the first five innings. His replacement in the sixth, Jake Winston, had a rough inning that acted as a microcosm of the Hops bullpen so far. There have been 12 wild pitches and one batter hit from seven different pitchers in five games. That’s a staggering lack of control that resulted in rampant stolen bases and scoring opportunities.
That ties into the other major problem on the field so far: absentminded errors in the infield. All of the four errors on Monday night were on routine throws to first base, with only Wright’s desperate toss in the fifth owing to a sacrifice bunt. These kinds of errors are also what led to the Volcanoes’ two towering wins over last weekend, with 14-3 on Saturday and 11-2 on Sunday. Mistakes of this magnitude cannot be saved by 97 MPH pitches or grand slams. This is precisely what loses any baseball game.
The overarching theme is that the Hops need to maintain a consistent intensity throughout each game, rather than these fifth and sixth inning naps. When the opposition goes on a tremendous rally, it is catching Hillsboro flat-footed. Once the three-game Eugene series has finished, the Hops take to the road again against the Vancouver Canadians through Monday, June 27.
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