Riley Adams delivered a walk-off double for the C’s Friday afternoon.
It was shaping up to be the most crushing loss of the season for the Vancouver Canadians but they earned their most exhilarating victory instead as the C’s knocked off the Spokane Indians 4-3 at Nat Bailey Stadium Friday afternoon. Vancouver maintained their three game advantage for top spot in the North Division of the Northwest League as the Tri-City Dust Devils kept pace with a victory over the Everett AquaSox Friday night.
Former Kentucky Wildcat Zach Logue made his Nat Bailey Stadium debut and he had to get four outs to keep Spokane off the board in the first. A strikeout-wild pitch to Tyler Ratliff kept the inning going but Logue struck out Andretty Cordero for the final out. Logue then struck out the side in the second to strand a two-out single by Curtis Terry, whiffing the trio of Melvin Novoa, Cristian Inoa and Austin O’Bannon.
Kacy Clemens recorded the first hit of the day for Vancouver with a one-out double in the second inning and Brock Lundquist earned the first walk but Bryan Lizardo was called out on strikes and Brandon Polizzi went down swinging.
Logue began the third inning but was done after a leadoff walk to Yonny Hernandez. Brayden Bouchey took over and saw Hernandez steal second before walking Miguel Aparicio to put two runners on. After Matt Whatley popped out to third, the Indians scored their first run when Logan Warmoth tried to start a 6-4-3 double play on a ground ball by Ratliff but second baseman Kevin Vicuna‘s throwing error allowed Hernandez to score. Bouchey would get Cordero to ground out into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to limit the damage.
After an Owen Spiwak strikeout, the C’s loaded the bases in the third on singles by Reggie Pruitt, Vicuna and Warmoth but Riley Adams lined into a double play at short as Vicuna was doubled off at second on a 6-4 play.
Brock Lundquist scored the first run of the day for the Canadians.
Justin Dillon relieved Bouchey in the fourth and set down Spokane in order to put the C’s back on offence. Lundquist doubled with one out off Tyree Thompson before Polizzi delivered a two-out base knock to score the man with the moustache to tie the game at 1-1.
Vancouver looked to rinse, lather and repeat in the fifth as Dillon had another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth that included a strikeout of Hernandez. In the bottom half, Vicuna doubled with one out but there was no two-out RBI hit this time as Adams grounded out to leave the game tied at 1-1.
Miguel Burgos arrived from the bullpen to start the sixth and walked Whatley on a full-count pitch but a strike ’em out/throw ’em out double play occured when Burgos got Ratliff swinging while Spiwak threw out Whatley trying to steal second. Burgos then retired Cordero on a groundout for out number three.
Vancouver would convert on a leadoff walk in their half of the sixth to take the lead. Clemens got the free pass off Ismel Lopez and would steal second on a Lundquist strikeout. Lizardo would strike out but Polizzi came through again with another two-out RBI as his single scored Clemens to put the C’s up 2-1.
Brandon Polizzi drove in the first two Vancouver runs Friday.
The top of the seventh saw Inoa smack a one-out triple off Burgos and C’s manager Rich Miller get ejected by base umpire Anthony Warner. Burgos managed to keep Inoa 90 feet away on a Terry flyout to center and worked around a walk to O’Bannon by inducing a groundout to first by Hernandez.
Vancouver had an extra-base hit in the form of a two-out double by Warmoth after the stretch but second base was where he would stay after Adams grounded out to third. Burgos and Lopez took care of business with perfect frames in the eighth to bring the game to the top of the ninth.
Orlando Pascual came in to close it out but Spokane would stay open for business when Novoa connected for a home run to left-center to knot things up at 2-2. Pascual would bracket a Terry single with strikeouts to Inoa and O’Bannon to keep the game tied.
Polizzi would double off Lopez to start the ninth but Josh Advocate was not in support of the C’s walking it off. After Spiwak sent Polizzi to third on a bunt, Advocate threw out Polizzi at home when he tried to score on a Pruitt comebacker to the mound. Pruitt was then tossed out trying to steal second and that put the game into overtime.
Pascual was a strike away from a 1-2-3 10th inning but Whatley and Ratliff strung together two-out singles. However, Whatley’s misery on the basepaths continued as he was picked off by Pascual at second on a 2-4 play to end the frame.
It was the C’s turn to squander a scoring chance in the 10th when Warmoth doubled and went to third on an Adams base hit but Clemens went down swinging and Lundquist flied out to left to extend the game into the 11th.
Spokane would have runners on the corners with one out against Burgos when Novoa singled to left on a ball that went off Warmoth to left before Inoa advanced him another 180 feet with a base hit. Lizardo would throw out pinch-runner Jonah McReynolds at home on a grounder to third before Burgos got O’Bannon swinging on a 3-2 pitch.
Spokane got back to bat quickly after the C’s did nothing in their half of the 11th. Lefty Grayson Huffman handed out a leadoff pass to Hernandez and after a sacrifice bunt by Aparicio, Whatley broke the deadlock with a base hit to left to bring home Hernandez. After watching Ratliff strike out swinging, Whatley managed to get picked off at first by Huffman to end the rally. For those of you scoring at home, that’s two pickoffs and one caught stealing for Whatley.
For all of Whatley’s foibles on the basepaths, he had given Spokane the lead and a chance to win the rubber match of this three-game set. At that point, the C’s had blown so many opportunities to score and had so many things go wrong that it would have been easy for them to pack it in and call it a day. Instead of feeling sorry from themselves, they picked themselves back up to get ready for one last kick at the can in the bottom of the 12th.
Pruitt got it all started with a leadoff double and got to third on a groundball to the right side by Vicuna before scoring on a bloop single by Warmoth to tie the game at 3-3. Adams then came through with a double to left to score Warmoth all the way from first to give the Canadians their second walk-off win of the season.
Logan Warmoth tied the game with his fourth hit of the day and scored the winning run.
Warmoth had a four-hit afternoon and Polizzi had three. The trio of Pruitt, Vicuna and Adams had a pair of hits apiece with Vicuna stealing his 9th base of the year. Clemens and Lundquist both singled and walked with Clemens pilfering his second bag. Vancouver had five hits in 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position, stranding 11 of them. Adams himself left five men on base before coming through with the game-winning hit.
Huffman earned the win despite allowing the go-ahead run in the 12th as he struck out a batter. Pascual gave up six hits over three frames but struck out three. Burgos and Dillon had one apiece while Logue rung up five to give the C’s staff 11 punchouts on the day against five walks.
C-Notes
2014 shortstop Franklin Barreto belted his ninth home run of the season for Triple-A Nashville, his first since being sent back from Oakland.
2012-2013 infielder Jason Leblebijian and 2014 designated hitter Rowdy Tellez had two hits apiece but Buffalo lost again in Scranton.
2014 teammates Richard Urena and Ryan McBroom had three hits apiece while Jonathan Davis singled and walked twice in New Hampshire’s victory over Portland.
In Dunedin, Cavan Biggio (2016) had three hits while Connor Panas (2015) and Michael De La Cruz (2014) had two apiece in Dunedin’s setback in Tampa. Mike Reeves (2013-2014) walked twice. Dan Lietz (2014-2016) had three shutout innings of relief while Tom Robson (2013, 2015) and Jackson McClelland (2015-2016) had one apiece.
In Lansing, 2016-2017 teammates Javier Hernandez and Mattingly Romanin were 1-for-3 with RBIs, Josh Palacios (2016) had a hit and a walk and Rodrigo Orozco (2015-2016) had a hit in the Lugnuts triumph over Beloit. Griffin Glaude (2016) got the win while Jared Carkuff (2016-2017) earned the save.
Bluefield was hammered by Greeneville but 2017 teammates Chavez Young (3-for-4 with an assist from center field) and Yorman Rodriguez had two-thirds of the Bluef-Jays hit total.
The C’s open up a five-game series against the Hillsboro Hops Saturday night for a 7:05 pm first pitch at The Nat. The game will be carried on Shaw TV in Vancouver as well as TSN 1040 and CanadiansBaseball.com. Sunday’s and Wednesday’s games are at 1:05 pm while Monday’s and Tuesday’s affairs are set for 7:05 pm.
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