The Eugene Emeralds beat the Vancouver Canadians 7-4 for their fourth win of the series at Ron Tonkin Field Saturday.
Vancouver wasted little time getting on the scoreboard first as Tanner Kirwer drew a leadoff walk against Seth Corry before Tanner Morris doubled Kirwer two pitches later.
However, Eugene would respond in the next half-inning. After a perfect top of the first, Canadians starter Adam Kloffenstein ran into trouble in the second. Logan Wyatt singled and Tyler Fitzgerald walked. Wyatt was cut down at third on a 6-5 fielder’s choice off the bat of Franklin Labour but Jacob Gonzalez walked to load the bases. Kloffenstein struck out Brandon Matarano for the second out but a fielding error by Luis De Los Santos at second on a Javeyan Williams roundball allowed Fitzgerald to score the tying run. A Simon Whiteman walk with the bases loaded brought in Labour for the tie-breaking marker.
Eugene added to their lead with a two-out rally in the fifth. Base hits by Will Wilson and Wyatt put them on the corners and that spelled the end of the night for Kloffenstein. Willy Gaston came out of the pen and gave up an RBI single to Fitzgerald and a two-run knock by Labour to make it 5-1 Eugene. Philip Clarke threw out Labour trying to steal second to end the inning.
The Canadians put together a rally of their own in the bottom of the inning. Ronny Brito drew a four-pitch walk and D.J. Neal heard ball four as well. Kirwer would load the bases with a sharp single to left. One out later, Cameron Eden was hit by a pitch that brought Brito home. Spencer Horwitz then followed with a sacrifice fly to left to score Neal to cut the Emeralds lead to two.
Eugene answered back with a run in the top of the sixth. Gonzalez doubled, advanced to third on on a Martorano grounder to first and scored on a Clarke passed ball.
The Canadians got a run of their own in the sixth when De Los Santos doubled to left off Ryan Walker. He would come in to score on a Clarke base hit to right to bring the C’s to within two. Neal would reach on an error at third by Fitzgerald with one out and Morris had an infield single to first that went off Walker that loaded the bases but Eden struck out looking for the final out.
The Emeralds answered the Canadians volley with a run in the seventh. Patrick Bailey—the Giants first round pick of 2020—got aboard on a leadoff walk and came all the way around to score on a Wilson double.
C-Notes
The Canadians did bring the tying run to the plate in the eighth when Clarke was hit by a pitch by Walker and Brito introduced John Timmins to the game with a base hit to left. Timmins would strike out Neal and Kirwer before getting Morris to ground out to short. R.J. Dabovich retired the side in order in the ninth for the save.
Vancouver hit into a pair of double plays in the second and third innings. A De Los Santos leadoff hit was erased by Clarke’s 4-6-3 twin-killing in the second. The big killer was a double play that ended the third when the bases were loaded. Neal singled to start and stole second and Morris and Eden drew back-to-back one out walks but Horwitz grounded into a 4-6-3 DP to leave the C’s empty-handed.
Morris and De Los Santos both doubled as part of their two-hit nights with Morris drawing a walk and knocking home a run. Morris is now hitting .294 on the season.
Neal, Clarke and Brito reached base twice with Neal and Clarke picking up a hit and a walk and Clarke getting plunked to go with his base hit. Neal also stole his fourth base of the year. Eden also got aboard twice with a walk and a plunk.
Kloffenstein finished one out shy of five innings, giving up four runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks and also made a throwing error that did not figure into the scoring. He struck out five and seven of his 10 outs in play were on the ground.
Gaston had an unearned run among the three he allowed in 2-1/3 innings. He yielded four hits and two walks while striking out two.
Parker Caracci faced the minimum in two shutout innings in which he only allowed a hit. A Whiteman single in the ninth was eliminated on the back-end of a strike-’em-out/throw-’em-out double play when Wilson struck out and Whiteman was nailed trying to steal third after previously stealing second. Caracci struck out three to chop his earned run average down to 1.69.
Paxton Schultz starts the series finale for Vancouver in a 1:05 pm start Sunday at Ron Tonkin Field. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com.
The C’s are three games back of the Emeralds for first place in the High-A West with a record of 16-13.
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