Color Scheme

Subscribe now
Spokane Indians

Hillsboro’s Kevin Graham sparks 10th inning rally, Spokane Indians fall to Hops 5-3

By Dave Nichols daven@spokesman.com(509) 459-5441

From staff reports

Kevin Graham hit an RBI double and scored in the 10th inning and the Hillsboro Hops beat the Spokane Indians 5-3 in a Northwest League game at Avista Stadium on Wednesday.

The Indians (16-22) have split the first two games of the six-game series with the Hops (16-22).

With the automatic runner at second base, Graham doubled on the first pitch of the 10th against Angel Chivilli (2-8), in his second inning of work, to put Hillsboro ahead 4-3. A wild pitch moved Graham to third and he scored on Manuel Pena’s single.

The Indians went 1-2-3 in the bottom half, with Liam Norris striking out the side to earn his second save of the season.

Hillsboro tied it at 3 in the eighth with Juan Corniel’s solo homer, his first of the season, off reliever Seth Halvorsen.

Indians starter Mason Green ran into some bad luck in the third. With one down, Corniel reached on an infield single and scored when Jean Walters’ fly to center was lost in the sun and went for a double.

Walters moved to third on a single and scored when Green was called for a balk for a 2-0 lead.

The Indians loaded the bases in the bottom half on a pair of hits and a hit by pitch.

Juan Guerrero grounded to first and Robby Martin Jr. scored. Ryan Ritter skied one to deep shortstop and Braiden Ward tagged and raced home for a 2-all tie.

The Indians took a 3-2 lead in the fourth. Parker Kelly, in his first game since promotion from Low-A Fresno earlier this week, led off with a triple and scored on an RBI single by Ben Sems.

For starters: Green went six innings, his longest outing of the year, and allowed two runs on four hits. He did not issue a walk and struck out two, throwing 44 of his 68 pitchers for strikes.

Moves: Starting pitcher Jaden Hill was placed on the injured list with shoulder inflammation effective Tuesday. Hill was removed from Thursday’s game at Everett with what was originally described as lower back tightness.

Hill, a second-round draft pick (44th overall) of the Colorado Rockies in the 2021 MLB draft is 0-9 with a 9.48 ERA in 43 2/3 innings over 16 starts for the Indians this season. He had Tommy John surgery his junior season in college and pitched sparingly until this season.