Colin Simpson, Drew Romo homer but Spokane Indians done in by bottom of Hillsboro order

Watch enough baseball and you’ll end up seeing some weird things. On Sunday at Avista Stadium, the weirdness ended up costing the home team.

In the fifth, sixth and seventh innings Hillsboro’s 7-8-9 hitters reached base nine consecutive times and scored seven runs to lead the Hops over the Spokane Indians 11-9 in the finale of a six-game Northwest League series.

The Indians (7-8) won the series over Hillsboro (7-8) four games to two and have won five of their last seven.

During the middle innings Hillsboro’s Alex Andueza, Jose Cupra and Leodany Perez went 7 for 7 with two walks, seven runs, three RBIs and three stolen bases. Andueza finished 3 for 4 with a walk, three runs, a stolen base and an RBI.

Colin Simpson went 3 for 4 with a two-run homer for the Indians. Drew Romo added a two-run homer in the fifth, his first of the season, which gave the Indians a brief lead.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that,” Simpson said of the Hops’ production from the bottom of the order. “That was crazy. That was a wild Sunday game and all I can say is the best we can do is get back out on Tuesday and bounce back from this game.”

It was a back-and-forth affair with the lead changing each inning from the fourth until the seventh.

“It’s exhausting,” Simpson said. “I mean, you go out and you put up a couple runs, take the lead and then they get up and they swing the bat and take the lead back – that back and forth. It’s just draining, especially on defense.

“But games like that are fun to watch anyway.”

“It keeps us engaged,” Romo said. “Unfortunately we lost, but that’s a fun way to end the series and the week heading into the off day with a good back-and-forth game.”

The Hops took the lead in the first as Caleb Roberts took Indians starter Andrew Quezada over the batting cages 30 feet beyond the right field fence for an early 2-0 lead.

It stayed that way until the bottom of the fourth, when the Indians took the lead on a Daniel Montano RBI triple and two-run homer from Simpson.

Then with two down, catcher Ronaiker Palma lofted a high fly toward the short wall in the right field corner. Outfielder Danny Oriente chased it and crashed into the wall just to the left of the 296-foot mark, but the ball eluded him for a solo home run.

Hillsboro scored four in the fifth on three consecutive singles by the bottom of the order, then a sacrifice fly, groundout and flared broken-bat single to the opposite field.

Romo’s blast in the bottom half gave the lead back to the Indians, but it was short-lived as the Hops scored two in the sixth and three in the seventh – all fueled by the bottom third of the order.

“I’m not worried about (Romo) hitting home runs,” Indians manager Scott Little said. “He’s having good at-bats. It was a big home run. We took the lead again, just a shame we just we couldn’t have any shutdown (innings).”

Spokane made it a two-run game in the eighth on an RBI single by Palma after Simpson had doubled.

The Indians are off Monday and start a six-game road series on Tuesday against the Everett AquaSox at Funko Field.

Game notes

• Tough ending: After the homer in the first inning, Quezada settled in to face one batter more than the minimum over the next three innings. But a series of bloops, groundball singles and runs scoring on outs spelled his demise, and he didn’t get out of the fifth.

It didn’t help that two straight checked swings calls went against him with the base umpire in the middle of the field with runners on base instead of down the baseline.

“I think he struck that one guy out like three times,” Little said.

Quezada allowed six runs on seven hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He threw 80 pitches, 55 for strikes.

• Homer, Simpson: Simpson is hitting .385 with 1,217 on-base plus slugging average, but because of the roster construction he has played in just eight of Spokane’s 15 games thus far.

“We get enough work in on the field and stuff every day, get BP every day,” he said. “We have optional (hitting) on the machine in the cage every day, so it’s a little tough (not playing everyday) but I get to see live pitches all the time off a BP arm so it’s kind of the same timing.

“But it is nice to be able to come into a game and contribute to the team that way.”

“He’s a professional hitter and that’s what he does,” Little said. “I’m gonna play him whenever I can play him. And I’ll play him as much as I can play him. I’m like everybody, I would like to see him out there every day, but that’s something that’s probably not going to happen.”

• Feeling good: Romo has been one of the more consistent producers on offense for the Indians. He’s hitting .351 so far, but he was still happy to hit his first High-A homer.

“It feels good just to get it out of the way,” he said. “I’m just gonna keep sticking with my approach and working hard and getting ready for the next day.”