Robert Calaz knocks in four, Spokane Indians win streak reaches nine | NWL baseball

Jul. 5—HILLSBORO, Ore. — Robert Calaz broke out of a month-long funk, going 3-for-5 with four RBIs and the Spokane Indians handled the Hillsboro Hops 9-3 in the finale of a six-game High-A Northwest League series at Hillsboro Hops Ballpark on Sunday.

The Indians (11-4) have won nine games in a row. It's the second six-game series sweep for the Indians since the change to the minor league scheduling in 2021. There have been 14 sweeps in the Northwest League — Hillsboro has lost nine of them.

Tommy Hopfe's infield single leading off the fourth inning extended his hitting streak to 21 game games, the longest for the team since Hunter Stovall's 21-game streak in 2021.

Since June 1, Calaz has hit .194 (15 of 77) with just five extra base hits. His three hits on Sunday were all singles, but each knocked in runs.

Spokane jumped ahead in the second inning against Hillsboro starter Wellington Aracena. Tanner Thach led off with a single and with one down Calaz's infield single put runners at the corners. Kevin Fitzer followed with a line-drive single to plate Thach, then Juan Castillo singled to load the bases.

That brought up Tevin Tucker, who singled into the left field corner to plate two and make it 3-0.

The Hops (6-9) got one back on a solo homer by Carlos Virahonda, his third of the season, in the bottom half.

The Indians offense went back to work in the third, loading the bases with one out on two walks and a single by Roynier Hernandez. Calaz hit a routine grounder to short, but Wallace Clark's feed to second instead went into right field and two runs came in. Fitzer followed with a hard-hit single to left to knock in Hernandez and put the visitors up 6-1.

They added a single run in the fifth on a Jacob Humphrey triple and RBI single by Calaz, then tacked on two more in the sixth when Calaz singled with the bases loaded to make it 9-1.

Indians starter Yuma Herrera allowed one run on one hit and one walk with three strikeouts. Austin Emener tossed the final 2 2/3 shutout innings with three Ks.

The Indians start a six-game series in Eugene (7-8) on Tuesday at 6:35 p.m.