The Vancouver Canadians saw their eight-game winning streak snapped as they fell to the Hillsboro Hops 4-3 at Ron Tonkin Field Friday.
The first two runs of the game were solo home runs. Andy Yerzy opened the scoring for the Hops with a two-out homer off Nick Fraze in the first inning to give them a 1-0 lead. That homer was matched by Ryan Gold as he took Slade Cecconi deep with an opposite field shot to left field deep to start off the top of the second.
The game remained tied at 1-1 until the Hops responded with three runs in the seventh. In a battle of players whose dads were former Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox, Nick Dalesandro (father Mark) singled up the middle against Cobi Johnson (father Dane) to begin the seventh inning. Dalesandro stole second and third base before scoring the go-ahead run on a Tra Holmes flare single to right field. Holmes would swipe second and was part of a double steal with Ricky Martinez. Leodany Perez walked to load the bases before Holmes crossed the plate on a wild pitch to make it 3-1 Hillsboro. Johnson struck out Reece Hampton and Blaze Alexander before being relieved by Marcus Reyes. As a left-hander, Reyes had his back to Martinez at third and Martinez was able to steal home to give the Hops a three-run lead. Reyes prevented any further damage by striking out Yerzy to end the inning.
Vancouver mounted a rally in the ninth inning as Gold doubled off Kyler Stout before Tanner Morris connected for his first home run of the season to cut the Hops lead to a single run.
Stout struck out Ronny Brito and Rafael Lantigua but walked Sebastian Espino. Both managers made a move as Hops manager Vince Harrison brought in Joe Jones to relieve Stout while C’s skipper Donnie Murphy elected to bring in Spencer Horwitz to pinch-hit for Eric Rivera. Jones needed just one pitch to retire Horwitz on a grounder to first to give Hillsboro its first win of this six-game series.
C-Notes
The Canadians got their first two runners aboard in the top of the fourth when Cameron Eden reached second base on an infield single to short and a throwing error by Alexander at short. Gold drew a walk but they were left stranded.
Kirwer got on base with a two-out walk in the third and on a strikeout/wild pitch from Kenny Hernandez to extend the fifth inning but he was also left on. A two-out Morris single was also wasted in the sixth.
Philip Clarke extended his on-base streak to 13 games by taking one for the team again. He was plunked on the knee with a Cecconi curve ball in the first inning. Clarke would be thrown out by Dalesandro trying to steal second after Cameron Eden was called out on strikes to end the first.
The C’s had just five hits on the night, two each from Gold and Morris with Gold also drawing a walk. Eden had the other base hit. Espino and Tanner Kirwer each drew a walk.
Fraze allowed just six base runners in his six innings of work on three hits, two walks and a hit by pitch. He hit Holmes with a pitch in the second inning but overcame that by striking out the side. That accounted for half of Fraze’s six strikeouts on the evening. Of his eight outs in play, five were on the ground. He threw an economical 65 pitches, 42 of them for strikes. His earned run average is at 2.12.
The Hops wore their Soñadores de Hillsboro uniforms as part of MiLB’s national Copa de la Diversión / Fun Cup initiative.
Adam Kloffenstein is scheduled to start for Vancouver in a 6:35 pm contest against Hillsboro tonight. CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV will have the broadcast.
C’s Alumni Report
2017 Canadians catcher Riley Adams homered to tie the game in the ninth and Logan Warmoth (2017) drove in the winning run as Buffalo beat Worcester 6-4. Adams had a 2-for-2 night at the dish while Nash Knight (2016) contributed an RBI single as part of a two-hit, one-walk night. Nate Pearson (2017) gave up a run in three innings of work, striking out four batters while yielding two hits and a walk. Tayler Saucedo (2015) overcame a hit and a walk by striking out the side in the sixth inning, keeping his ERA at triple-zero.
Reggie Pruitt (2017) ripped his first home run in Double-A as part of a two-hit night and L.J. Talley was also 2-for-5, drove in three runs and stole a base as New Hampshire punched out Portland 12-4. Chavez Young (2017) had a base hit and two walks and Otto Lopez (2018) singled, walked and scored three runs. Samad Taylor (2017) was 2-for-5, Kevin Vicuña (2017) was 1-for-5 with two RBI and Chris Bec (2017) also had a base knock. Zach Logue (2017) supplied a quality start, giving up just one run on three hits and a walk while striking out six.
Winder Garcia (2019) struck out five over four shutout innings, scattering two hits and three walks and Ryan Sloniger (2019) went 2-for-4 as visiting Dunedin dumped Clearwater 4-2.
Rowdy Tellez (2014) was 1-for-4 with a walk, Jonathan Davis (2014) was 1-for-3 with a run scored and Tim Mayza (2014) pitched a scoreless inning but Toronto fell to Tampa Bay 9-7 in 11 innings.
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