No Joke, The Final Score: Dust Devils 19, Emeralds 18 (11 innings)

PASCO – The Tri-City Dust Devils (24-20 2H, 54-56) and the Eugene Emeralds (32-12 2H, 64-46) participated in a baseball contest to end all baseball contests Wednesday night at Gesa Stadium, with Tri-City C Juan Flores’s two-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11^th giving the Dust Devils a 19-18 win that will go down in franchise history as perhaps the team’s wildest win.

The home nine found themselves in deep trouble early, with Eugene scoring seven runs off Tri-City starter Yeferson Vargas and driving him out of the game before he could get a single out. Down 7-0 before they came to the plate, the Dust Devils answered quickly via two-run homers from both DH Ben Gamel and 2B Adrian Placencia that made it a 7-4 game through an inning of play. Tri-City tied the game an inning later in the bottom of the 2^nd, with RBI hits from CF Anthony Scull (single), SS Capri Ortiz (double) and LF Rio Foster (double) driving Emeralds starter Charlie McDaniel out of the game before he could get through two innings.

The visitors from the original Emerald City dusted themselves off and put up another four runs in the top of the 3^rd to lead 11-7. One swing erased that advantage on the bottom side, when Gamel came up with the bases loaded and sent a grand slam over the wall in right to tie the game at 11-11 through three innings. Scoring slowed for a moment, with Placencia walking in the bottom of the 6^th and scoring on a wild pitch to give the Dust Devils their first lead of the night at 12-11. That lead would not hold, though, with Eugene scoring twice in the 8^th and executing a sacrifice squeeze bunt in the 9^th to retake and push their lead to 14-12.

Down to their final three outs, Tri-City found a way to tie the game in the bottom of the 9^th. Ortiz singled and got to second on a wild pitch, moving to third on an infield single by Gamel and scoring on a second wild pitch. Gamel got to second on the same wild pitch, and Foster brought him home on a double down the left field line to tie the game at 14-14.

The tug-of-war continued to extra innings, where the Dust Devils found themselves out of pitchers. Listed catcher Caleb Pendleton (1-0) took the hill, getting two outs in the 10^th before giving up three runs. His teammates picked him up, though, scoring three times to tie the game again. 1B Colin Summerhill’s RBI single got the first run in, Scull lined an RBI double to right and 3B Cole Fontenelle was struck by a pitch with the bases loaded and the team down to its last strike. That made it 17-17 and sent the game to an 11^th inning.

Pendleton again got two outs and had a chance to post a zero but the Emeralds got a run across to lead 18-17. That took Tri-City’s longest game of the pitch clock era to the bottom of the 11^th, where Placencia started at second and Flores came up. The 19-year-old backstop, whose performance at the plate has improved considerably in the second half, took the second pitch he saw from Eugene reliever Ryan Vanderhei (2-5) over the wall in left center, sending the faithful home happy and ending the long baseball marathon joyously.

DUST DEVILS NOTES

-Ben Gamel’s two home runs gave him six RBI for the night, the most of any Dust Devils hitter. Rio Foster had another huge night as well, going 5-for-7 with three doubles and two runs driven in. Both men had multi-hit games, joined by RF Randy De Jesus, Juan Flores, Capri Ortiz and Anthony Scull. All 18 players in the respective starting lineups had at least one hit, and late sub Isaiah Jackson’s 10^th inning single made it so every Tri-City hitter had at least one knock on the night.

-The 19 runs and 22 hits for the home nine set single-game highs for the 2025 season, eclipsing previous marks of 14 runs (June 21 v. Hillsboro) and 18 hits (set six days ago, August 8, at Everett).

-At four hours and 27 minutes, the game ended up the second-longest played at a letter level or the major leagues this year. Only the 14-inning Single-A contest between the Daytona Tortugas and the Jupiter Hammerheads went longer, taking four hours and 49 minutes to complete. The game also stands as the longest Dust Devils game in the pitch clock era (since April 15, 2022), and the longest game for Tri-City since a 13-12, 11-inning win at Vancouver on August 29, 2019.

WE’LL SEE YOU LATER TONIGHT

Tri-City and Eugene will look to fashion some sort of encore in game three of their six-game series at 7:05 p.m. at Gesa Stadium. It’s Viñeros Jersey Auction Night, presented by Roto-Rooter, with the team playing in their wine industry and worker-themed alternate identity for the last time in 2025. Fans will be able to bid on the jerseys, with winners receiving them from the player or coach who wore the jersey right after the game.

Right-hander Chris Clark (1-1, 3.97 ERA) gets the start for the Dust Devils, facing left-hander Cesar Perdomo (7-5, 4.16 ERA) of the Emeralds.

Free broadcast coverage stars with the Dust Devils Pregame Show at 6:45 p.m., available in the MiLB Zone of Bally Sports Live and at dustdevilsbaseball.com/the MiLB app.

The remainder of the series includes the first-ever Tri-Cities drone show after Friday night’s game. With postgame fireworks Saturday night and the team’s Hat Giveaway Sunday night, Gesa Stadium is the place to be this coming week.

For tickets to the Eugene series and all remaining 2025 Dust Devils home games, visit the official ticket site: dustdevilsbaseball.com.