Vancouver Canadians Christopher Bec

Christopher Bec homered, drove in three runs and stole a base for Vancouver Saturday.

The Vancouver Canadians will have a rubber match with the Spokane Indians to decide the biggest series of the season to date. The C’s evened their three-game set against the Indians with a 4-0 victory at Nat Bailey Stadium Saturday night. Vancouver has regained sole possession of first place in the North Division by improving to 14-9 in the second half, one game ahead of 13-10 Spokane.

Otto Lopez opened the bottom of the first with an infield single to third off Scott Engler. Lopez would steal second and get to third on a sacrifice bunt by Tanner Kirwer. Christopher Bec lined one right up the middle to bring in Lopez for the game’s first run. Bec would steal second base but was later stranded.

Vancouver would get an insurance run in the fifth thanks again to Bec. Jesus Severino doubled to right with one out and the bases would be loaded after walks to Nick Podkul and Kirwer. With two away, Bec would get a free pass to bring in Severino and chase Engler from the game. Cole Uvila entered the game and struck out Griffin Conine to leave the bases loaded.

The Canadians got another run in the sixth when Yorman Rodriguez and Jake Brodt went to the opposite field with Brodt singling home a Rodriguez double off Cole Uvila to make it 3-0.

Bec provided the final Vancouver run with a home run to left field off Werner Leal in the seventh.

Xavier Moore was the only Spokane pitcher not to be scored upon in one-third of an inning.

Vancouver Canadians Randy Pondler

Randy Pondler picked up his fourth win of the season with five shutout innings Saturday.

Randy Pondler kept Spokane in check with five shutout innings. Joey Pulido and Connor Law contributed two scoreless frames apiece to preserve the goose egg.

Vancouver Canadians Connor Law

Connor Law reached triple digits on the radar gun Saturday.

Radar Gun Rundown

radar_gun_iconPondler was around 87 miles per hour and recorded strikeouts at 81, 77 and 85.

Pulido reached 95 and Law was also in the mid-90’s, reaching 100 at one point.

 

C-Notes

C's NotesThe Canadians were able to win this one despite some sloppy baserunning on a couple of occasions. The first occurence happened in the second inning after Brodt and Severino singled for a first-and-second situation with one out. Podkul then grounded out into a double play that went 6-3-6-3-4-2-5-3, resulting in Brodt being tagged out at home. Both Severino and Brodt found themselves caught in between on the basepaths.

Before Bec’s home run, Vancouver looked to be set for a big seventh inning when Lopez and Kirwer began the frame with base hits. However, Lopez strayed too far off second base and that led to more baserunning shenanigans that resulted in Lopez and Kirwer being tagged out on a 1-4-5-6-3-4-3-6 inning-ending double play. Kirwer was caught looking at the play instead of getting to second base when Lopez was hung up between second and third.

Vancouver Canadians Jesus Severino

Jesus Severino had an impact on both sides of the ball Saturday.

Severino made a couple of smooth plays at short, including a nice pick on an Austin O’Banion ground ball for the second out of the ninth inning.

Vancouver recorded 11 base hits and four walks and struck out 11 times. There were three hits with 10 tries with runners in scoring position with eight men left on base. Lopez, Bec, Brodt and Severino had two hits apiece. Kirwer was aboard twice with a single and a walk. Rodriguez had a double and Contreras had a base hit. Podkul drew a walk.

The C’s were 5-for-6 in stolen base attempts with Brodt getting two of them. Lopez, Bec and Severino had the other swipes. Lopez was charged with a pickoff and caught stealing in the aforementioned seventh.

Pondler scattered four hits and struck out six over five shutout frames to even his record at 4-4. Two of those hits came in the second when Francisco Ventura led off with a single and Cristian Inoa got a base hit one out later but Pondler escaped the jam with an inning-ending strikeout of Jonah McReynolds.

Spokane’s other threat against Pondler was in the fifth when Austin O’Banion singled and got into scoring position on a McReynolds sacrifice bunt. Tyler Depreta-Johnson struck out swinging before Podkul made a nice leaping catch on a Jax Biggers line drive to keep the Indians at bay.

Pulido got around a hit and two walks and punched out two in his two-inning appearance. He stranded a leadoff walk to Starling Joseph and a Depreta-Johnson two-out single by ringing up Biggers on strikes. Law walked one and whiffed three over the final two frames to preserve the shutout.

Josh Winckowski (4-4, 2.60) starts the series finale for Vancouver at 1:05 pm Sunday afternoon. Jake Latz (4-1, 4.75)—an 11th round pick of Toronto in 2014—gets the ball for Spokane. Rob Fai—who reached the 950 game milestone as a broadcaster—will have the call on TSN 1040 and CanadiansBaseball.com. The pregame show is set for 12:00 pm.

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Published by Niall O'Donohoe

My name is Niall O’Donohoe and I am an avid follower of baseball. My blog beginnings began in 2007 with Batter’s Box under the alias #2JBrumfield. The blog formerly known as Niall On Baseball, C’s Plus Baseball strives to deliver plus coverage of the C’s through photos, observations and interviews of the players striving to make it to the major leagues. If you like what you see here, please spread the word about CsPlusBaseball.ca through your favourite social media platform. This blog began just before the C's championship season in 2017 and the goal is to deliver awesome content about Canada’s only affiliated professional minor league baseball club. Thanks a million for being here!

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