The Vancouver Canadians had to work some overtime to get their first win of the season in Tri-City. It took 10 innings before the Canadians downed the Dust Devils 1-0 at Gesa Stadium Wednesday. That marked the first time in 11 games the road team won a game between the two clubs in the season series.
The only run of the game came in the 10th when McGregory Contreras singled off Deacon Medders to score Jesus Lopez who was the runner placed at second base to begin the inning. Contreras was thrown out at second trying to turn his single into a double.
The Dust Devils had Matthew Acosta start the bottom of the 10th at second base and he was bunted over to third by Luke Becker. Luke Gillingham made sure Acosta would remain 90 feet away from tying the game as he struck out pinch-hitter Jordy Barley and Alison Quintero swinging to get the victory.
Gillingham—aka Magnum after serving in the Navy for almost three years—pitched three shutout innings of one-hit ball for the win by striking out four and getting three groundouts.
Before Gillingham, it was Adam Kloffenstein who pitched seven shutoug innings against Tri-City by scattering five hits and two walks. The Northwest League All-Star struck out seven and recorded all eight of his outs in play on the ground.
The Canadians were kept in check by Angel Acevedo for the first five innings and by Starlin Cordero over the next three. Medders put up a goose egg in the ninth before surrendering the unearned marker in the 10th.
C-Notes
Philip Clarke had the first of three Vancouver hits on the night with a two-out single in the first. Will Robertson drew a walk to begin the second but was later thrown out trying to steal second. Tanner Morris got aboard on an infield single to third in the third inning.
That single by Morris was the last time Vancouver had a runner on base until the 10th and that was only because of the extra-innings rule where a team is awarded a runner on second base to start the inning. Contreras snapped a streak of 19 consecutive Canadians going down in order with his RBI single.
Kloffenstein never had more than one baserunner to deal with until the seventh when Logan Driscoll and Sean Guilbe lined the first pitches up the middle for base hits to put runners on the corners. The man from Magnolia, Texas known as King Kloff got out of the jam by getting Acosta to tap back to the mound and throwing him out at first. Even with Guilbe advancing to second on the play, Kloffenstein would not allow another ball in play by striking out Becker and Mason House swinging to end the threat.
A Jack Stronach base hit off Gillingham with one out in the eighth was the last Dust Devils base runner in regulation.
The Dust Devils and Canadians play the rubber match of this three-game set. Ethan Elliott is scheduled to toss the first pitch at 7:15 pm for Tri-City. Alex Nolan will do the same for Vancouver. The effervescent Rob Fai will broadcast the game from Gesa Stadium on Sportsnet 650 and CanadiansBaseball.com.
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