Ems Handle Business On Spangenberg's Last Night In Town

Ems Handle Business On Spangenberg’s Last Night In Town

Posted on 11. Jul, 2011 at 11:46 pm by Braga in Eugene Emeralds

On the night when Major League Baseball had its home run derby, the Emeralds’ game against the Yakima Bears in Eugene didn’t feature any dingers.

It did, however, feature a ceremony of sorts.

San Diego Padres’ first round pick and Emeralds (21-4) second baseman Cory Spangenberg played his last game in Eugene tonight as he’s being moved up to Low-A Fort Wayne.

Manager Pat Murphy wanted to make sure his impressive month in Eugene was celebrated, so he pulled Spangenberg from his spot at second base with two outs in the ninth inning with the Ems ahead 6-2.

Cory Spangenberg on his way out after Manager Pat Murphy pulled him with two outs in the ninth inning.

“He’s destined to be a big-leaguer,” Murpy said. “It’s evident every day. He doesn’t just play the right way 9-out-of-10 times. It’s in him.

“He does it the right way every day.”

Spangenberg was hitting .386 on the season coming in to tonight’s game and led the Northwest League in runs scored (19), walks (31) on-base percentage (.556) and doubles (10). He also led the Ems in RBI (19) and stolen bases (10).

He reached base in every game this season and was named Northwest League Player of the Week two consecutive weeks in June.

He finished tonight’s game 1-3, with a run scored and a RBI on a sacrifice fly in his last at bat. He also made the out on his last play in the field.

Spangenberg was the tenth pick in this year’s draft after a successful season at third base for Indian River Junior College and signed a $1.8 million signing bonus, which was his slot as the tenth pick.

To be able to enjoy Spangenberg’s ceremony, Eugene had to handle business against the Bears (7-18).

They got off to a rough start in the first inning when starting pitcher James Needy (1-1) hit the game’s first batter, former Duck Danny Pulfer, with a pitch. Pulfer later scored on a sac fly.

Needy recovered well, pitching five innings of two-run ball. His relievers Greg Gonzalez and Simon Berroa combined to strike out five Bears and give up four hits and no runs the rest of the way.

“Needy gutted it out,” Murphy said. “Berroa was as good as I’ve seen him this year.”

Reliever Simon Berroa, who had struggled so far this season, shut down the Bears for the final two innings.

The game was tied 2-2 until the sixth inning, when Eugene broke the game open behind a two-run double by designated hitter Jose Dore, who finished with three RBI.

“It was a great feeling to come back like that,” Dore said. “It was a fastball up and they thought they could blow it by me. Fortunately, I caught up with the second one.”

Eugene scored three runs in the sixth, and finished out scoring with another run in the seventh after shortstop Jace Peterson led off with a single and two stolen bases, scoring on Spangenberg’s sac fly.

Peterson's first stolen base of the night.

The Ems get their first day off of the season tomorrow, and General Manager Allan Benavides said he’s taking a bunch of the players white water rafting, while others are going fishing or heading up to the Nike compound in Beaverton.

Most of the team is excited to finally get a break after 25 consecutive games.

Murphy is not one of them.

“I’m not looking forward to the day off,” he said. “We’re in a good rhythm right now.”

With the league lead and a magic number of nine games, you can’t really blame him.

Some more pics from the night: