Kyle Karros hits walk-off single, Spokane Indians edge Hillsboro 5-4

Kyle Karros had a terrific road trip, going 13 of 41 (.371) with three homers and nine RBIs over his past nine games.

His homecoming Tuesday was also good.

Karros delivered a walk-off, two-run single and the Spokane Indians edged the Hillsboro Hops 5-4 in the opener of a six-game Northwest League series at Avista Stadium .

The league-leading Indians improved to 23-8, four games ahead of Vancouver in the second half.

Spokane’s Jesus Bugarin bounced a single up the middle to lead off the ninth, and EJ Andrews pinch-ran for him at first. GJ Hill successfully sacrificed, allowing Andrews to move up to second. Cole Carrigg was hit by a pitch and Dyan Jorge walked to load the bases.

That brought up Karros, who got into a 2-2 count, reached down for an outside pitch and hit a liner into the left-field corner to bring home the winning runs.

The Hops (13-18) took an early lead in the second inning on Christian Cerda’s two-run homer, his second of the season, off Indians starter Victor Juarez.

The Indians got one runs back in the bottom half. Juan Guerrero and Bryant Betancourt hit back-to-back singles and Guerrero scored on Skylar Messinger’s sacrifice fly.

Cerda crushed his second homer of the night off Juarez in the fourth, a shot over the netting in left-center.

In the bottom half, Betancourt hit a foul ball down the right-field line originally called a home run by the base umpire, but it was overturned after review. Two pitches later, he hit the scoreboard in right-center for his 10th homer of the season, tied for third in the NWL.

Braxton Hyde came on for Juarez in the seventh and got into a jam, loading the bases with one out. He came back to strike out Gavin Conticello and get Tommy Troy to line out to keep it a one-run game.

Messinger led off the bottom half with a single. With one down, Bugarin’s broken-bat flare dropped to put two on. Both runners moved up on a balk and GJ Hill drew a walk to load the bases. The brought up Cole Carrigg, who walked on a full count to force in a run and tie it at 3.

The Hops broke the tie in the eighth. The Indians thought they threw out Junior Franco trying to steal second for the final out of the inning, but Jorge dropped the throw during the tag and Franco was ruled safe.

On the next pitch, Jose Fernandez bounced a single over the head of Karros at third and Franco scored without a throw.

The series continues Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.