The Vancouver Canadians lost their fifth in a row and third straight to the Everett AquaSox after a 7-3 defeat at Everett Memorial Stadium Thursday.
The AquaSox began the scoring in the first inning when Zach DeLoach doubled on a 3-2 pitch off Luis Quinones. A Patrick Frick single and an Austin Shenton walk loaded the bases before another free pass to Carter Bins scored DeLoach. Quinones retired the next three hitters to limit the damage to a single run.
The Canadians got all of their runs in the top of the third inning off Levi Stoudt. Connor Hoover was charged with an error when he dropped the ball at first on a throw by Shenton at third base. That allowed Ronny Brito to reach and he would get to second on a wild pitch. Eric Rivera drew a walk before Rafael Lantigua turned on an 0-2 pitch to line a ball over the left field fence to put Vancouver ahead 3-1.
That lead was cut to one when Shenton slammed one over the wall on the first by Quinones in the bottom half of inning number three.
Everett went ahead for good in the fourth. Quinones issued a couple of walks to Hoover and DeLoach with one out before getting Frick to line out to second. That was the last batter Quinones would face as he had thrown 87 pitches. Canadians manager Donnie Murphy brought in lefty Sean Mellen from the bullpen to face the left-handed bat of Shenton. The platoon advantage did not pay off for Vancouver as Shenton doubled home Hoover and DeLoach. Bins then singled to center off Lantigua at second to score Shenton with the fifth AquaSox run.
The Frogs continued to add on to their lead in the sixth. Joseph Rosa doubled with one out off Mellen and advanced to third on a Jake Anchia base knock. Rosa would tag up and score on Hoover’s sacrifice fly to make it a 6-3 game.
Everett got the extra point for its touchdown in the eighth off Connor Law. Hoover made it to first on an infield single that Spencer Horwitz could not cleanly handle. A Ryan Gold passed ball and a DeLoach grounder to first got Hoover over to third. Shenton then singled with two outs to cash in Hoover to cap a 3-for-3 night with two walks and four RBI.
C-Notes
Gold had the first Vancouver hit with a leadoff double in the second inning. He got to third on a wild pitch with two outs but was left on.
Brito started the fifth with a walk but the C’s were retired in order after that.
Sebastian Espino singled to center to open up the sixth off Dayeison Arias and John Aiello doubled to right with one out to put two runners in scoring position but that opportunity was wasted.
Lantigua singled off Evan Johnson to begin the eighth and D.J. Neal walked with one out but that led nowhere.
In the ninth, Aiello was hit by a pitch from David Ellingson with one out and Rivera singled up the middle with two away but the AquaSox hurler posted the sixth straight bagel against the Canadians offence on the line score.
Lantigua had two of Vancouver’s six hits. Gold and Aiello had extra-base knocks with Aiello taking one for the team. Espino and Rivera had the other safeties with Rivera getting a base on balls. The C’s were a woeful 1-for-9 with runners assuming the scoring position and left seven men on.
Rivera began the game in right field but was moved over to center to replace Cameron Eden in the bottom of the fifth. Neal entered the game to take over for Rivera in right. Eden grounded out to third and lined out to third in his two trips to the plate. Neal was 0-for-1 with a walk.
Quinones took the loss and handed out six walks for the third time in his six starts. He was charged with four runs on four hits over 3-2/3 innings with four strikeouts. Mellen could not strand the two runners left by Quinones and surrendered two runs on four hits and a walk. He struck out a pair in 3-1/3 innings. Law gave up a run over two hits in the eighth.
Monty’s Mounties have not won a game on Canada Day since 2016 when Burlington, Ontario’s Mattingly Romanin hit a grand slam in a win over Spokane at Nat Bailey Stadium.
This 12-game road trip for the Canadians now qualifies as a disaster. After losing four of six in Eugene, Vancouver has dropped three straight in Everett to guarantee them a losing record on the trip. Unless the C’s can bounce back in the latter three games of this series, they face the possibility of returning home below the .500 mark. They are currently 26-25, seven-and-a-half games back of Eugene and seven behind Everett.
Paxton Schultz will try to stop the skid for Vancouver as he goes up against 2020 Seattle first-round pick Emerson Hancock in a 7:05 pm start. The broadcast can be heard on CanadiansBaseball.com.
C’s Alumni Report
Portland rallied with four runs over the last two innings to knock off New Hampshire 4-2.
- Samad Taylor (2017) – 1/3, 2B
- Chavez Young (2017) – 1/2, BB, 2B, SB
- L.J. Talley (2021) – 0/2, RBI
- Vinny Capra (2018) – 1/3
- Tanner Kirwer (2018, 2021) – 1/3, SB
- Brock Lundquist (2017) – 0/2, SF
- Graham Spraker (2017) – 2.0IP 3H 1R/ER 0BB 5K
Patrick Murphy (2016) pitched 1-2/3 shutout innings and Tayler Saucedo (2015) stranded two runners and struck out the only man he faced in Toronto’s 7-3 loss to Seattle.
2014 Canadians second baseman Tim Locastro is on the move again. He was traded to the New York Yankees by the Arizona Diamondbacks for Double-A pitcher Keegan Curtis.
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