C’s Recap – Hawks Knock Off C’s Again

Grayson Huffman had two strikeouts in a scoreless fifth inning in Boise Monday.

It may be the most disappointing 4-3 road trip the Vancouver Canadians have ever experienced. After winning the first four games of their road trip that started with two wins in Spokane and two in Boise, the C’s dropped their third in a row to the Hawks 13-1 at Boise Memorial Stadium Monday night.

Dalton Rodriguez got through the first inning with no problem but that was not the case over the next three frames. Back-to-back errors by Reggie Pruitt in center and Kevin Vicuna at short conspired to bring in the first run of the game for Boise as Sean Bouchard reached second on Pruitt’s miscue before Danny Edgeworth‘s single and Vicuna’s error saw Bouchard cross home plate.

Things fell apart in the third for Rodriguez when Matt McLaughlin, Steven Linkous and Stephen Cardullo singled to load the bases. A Bret Boswell fielder’s choice scored McLaughlin before Bouchard belted a three-run homer to make it 5-0 Hawks.

Vancouver got their first hit in the fourth when Pruitt singled and made it to third on a Vicuna base hit and a Large fielder’s choice before scoring on a Riley Adams double. Large made it to third but he was stranded there after Bryan Lizardo struck out and Matt Morgan grounded out.

The Hawks answered that run and added two more of their own when Stephen Cardullo crushed a three-run shot to score a Sam Tidaback double and a McLaughlin single.

Grayson Huffman delivered Vancouver’s first scoreless frame of the night with two strikeouts, overcoming an error at first by Lizardo when he could not hang on to Huffman’s toss. Justin Dillon gave up a leadoff single to Tidaback in the sixth before setting down the side in order in the sixth. Meanwhile, the C’s only had one baserunner per inning over the fifth through seventh frames on two Norberto Obeso walks and a Large double in between.

Boise beat up on Brayden Bouchey when Tidaback connected for a grand slam in the eighth, scoring walks by Bouchard and Daniel Jipping and a base hit by Edgeworth. J.B. Moss also took William Ouellette deep for a solo shot in the ninth for the final tally.

Vancouver tried to make the score a little more respectable when Morgan walked and Barreto singled with two out but Obeso struck out to mercifully end this debacle.

The C’s had just one hit with runners in scoring position and seven men were left on. Except for Ouellete, all Vancouver pitchers averaged exactly one K per inning with Huffman whiffing two in his lone inning of work.

Pearson McMahan pitched the first three innings for Boise. Keinter Olivares gave up the only run in the fourth. The win went to Jesse Lepore after a scoreless fifth. Jared Gesell, Nate Harris and Kyle Cedotal finished up the final three innings.

C-Notes

2016 C’s first baseman David Jacob is on his way back to Vancouver according to the Northwest League transactions column. The former Quincy University Hawk—drafted in the 32nd round by the Blue Jays in 2016—played for the Buffalo Bisons in Pawtucket Sunday but went 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts in his season debut. Jacob was 3-for-10 in a brief trial with the C’s last year after batting .304 with six home runs in the Gulf Coast League. In that same game involving the Herd, 2014 outfielder Roemon Fields went 1-for-5 and stole his 22nd base of the year. 2014 lefty Tim Mayza got around four hits to pitch two scoreless innings in his second Triple-A appearance.

2015 C’s righthander Conor Fisk posted a Game Score of 85 for Dunedin after seven innings of two-hit ball in which he walked just one and struck out nine but took a no-decision in an eventual Dunedin loss Monday. On Sunday, 2013-2014 C’s catcher Mike Reeves homered and 2014 catcher Michael De La Cruz pinch-ran in the ninth and scored the winning run in a walk-off after fellow 2014 catcher Max Pentecost reached on an error. Pentecost did have two hits in the game. 2015 righty Josh DeGraaf gave up just one run over seven innings on five hits and a walk while whiffing six. 2015-2016 hurler Jackson McClelland earned the win in relief. He lowered his ERA to 0.69.

Francisco Rodriguez—who started this season in Vancouver—had a big night for Bluefield by going 4-for-5 with three runs scored and an RBI in a victory over the Princeton Rays. Jesus Severino—another former Canadian who began the year in YVR—had a 2-for-5 evening.

2016 Vancouver shortstop Yeltsin Gudino was 3-for-3 with a walk but Lansing was walloped by Fort Wayne.

Vancouver has Tuesday off to recover from the long trip back from Boise. They return home to open up a three-game series against the Spokane Indians Wednesday for a 7:05 pm first pitch. That game will be on TSN 1040 and CanadiansBaseball.com.

Vancouver’s lead in the North Division is down to two games after the Tri-City Dust Devils knocked off the Eugene Emeralds Monday. The C’s return home with a 16-10 record.