The Vancouver Canadians put an end to a three-game losing streak in their 2019 road debut, knocking off the Hillsboro Hops 5-1 at Ron Tonkin Field Friday.
After scoring just one run in their past two games, it looked like the C’s struggles with the bat would continue as they could not capitalize on a bases loaded situation in the first. A one-out single by Tanner Morris off Marcos Tineo, a Luis De Los Santos walk and a Trevor Schwecke two-out free pass set the stage for McGregory Contreras but a flyout to center left the bases full.
Ronny Brito doubled to begin to second and eventually scored on a Cameron Eden two-out single for the game’s first run.
Brito would double the C’s lead in the third inning with an RBI single to score a Yorman Rodriguez base hit.
Vancouver added two more runs in the third when Eden singled, moved to second and third on wild pitches and scored on a De Los Santos sacrifice fly. Before the sacrifice fly, Morris drew a walk, went to third on a Rodriguez single and came home on a Schwecke fielder’s choice.
The final C’s run came when Schwecke hit a ground-rule double to left field off Yaramil Hiraldo and scored on a fielding error at second by Nick Grande as he mishandled a Contreras ground ball.
C’s righthander Grant Townsend set the tone early by retiring the first 10 Hops hitters in a row before hitting Steven Leyton with a pitch. Only two more runners reached base against Townsend. Nick Dalesandro drew a leadoff walk in the sixth and Andy Yerzy doubled to start the seventh on a fly ball lost in the lights by Eden in center field. That led to Townsend’s exit after racking up eight strikeouts. Kristian Robinson singled home Yerzy off Andy McGuire but that was all the Hops would get. McGuire induced a pair of double plays over his two innings of work and Gage Burland used a pair of strikeouts to strand a double and a walk to put the game in the win column for Vancouver.
C-Notes
Eden, Morris, Rodriguez, Schwecke and Brito all had two-hit games in the one, two, four and five spots in the order to account for Vancouver’s hit total. They reached on a season-high in runs scored with five despite going 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position and leaving 10 men on base.
One good opportunity to add more runs came in the sixth when Eden was hit by a pitch and Morris walked but Franklyn Soriano induced a double play ball from Rodriguez to diffuse that threat.
Game two of the four game at Ron Tonkin Field set sees William Gaston (0-0, 3.60) get the ball for Vancouver against Adrian Del Moral (1-0, 0.00) at 7:05 pm.
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