Photo Credit – Christoper Oetell
The Vancouver Canadians three-game winning streak is over as the Hillsboro Hops handed them a 2-0 defeat at Ron Tonkin Field Wednesday.
The Hops got their runs in the second inning against C’s righthander Paxton Schultz. The rally started on an Eduardo Diaz infield single to third and he got to second base when Sebastian Espino made an errant throw to first. Schultz slid in front on Espino trying to get to the ball and Espino may have been distracted enough to cause that off-target throw. One out later, Reece Hampton singled home Diaz with the game’s first run. Hampton would come in to score on a Dominic Canzone two-out double.
That was more than enough for Hops starter Brandon Pfaadt to work with as he pitched a complete game four-hitter in a game that lasted just two hours and 12 minutes.
C-Notes
The Hops threatened to score in the first inning by loading up the bases but came away empty-handed for the second straight night. Jorge Barrosa singled on the second pitch of the game from Schultz and that was followed by a walk to Canzone. Tristin English then blooped a single to center field but Eric Rivera was able to throw out Canzone who rounded the second base bag a little too far and was tagged out by shortstop Luis De Los Santos. Andy Yerzy walked to load the bases but Schultz struck out Blaze Alexander and got Axel Andueza to ground out to first for the final out.
Schultz gave up a leadoff single to Yerzy in the third but started to find his groove as he sat down the last nine men he faced. He struck out seven over five innings and gave up the two runs on six hits and two walks.
Adrian Hernandez finished off the final three frames for the C’s. He limited the Hops to an Anduez single in the sixth and two eighth inning walks to Yerzy and Alexander. Hernandez got out of the eighth by getting Andueza to hit into an inning-ending 4-3 double play. His best inning was the seventh when he struck out the side, missing an immaculate inning by one pitch.
Ryan Gold had the first hit of the night for Vancouver in the second inning with a one-out double. Gold made it to third on a Spencer Horwitz groundout to second but that was as far as he got as Philip Clarke also grounded out to second for the third out.
Tanner Morris had a leadoff walk in the fourth but he was forced out on the front end of a 5-4-3 double play ball from De Los Santos to end the inning. Morris was the only Canadians player to get on base twice but it could have been more as he was rung up on borderline 3-2 pitches by umpire Ray Patchen in the first and ninth innings.
Rafael Lantigua doubled to center with two outs in the sixth and tried to come home on a Morris base hit to left but was thrown out easily at the plate by Diaz. Lantigua was not at the third base bag when third base coach Danny Canellas waved him home.
Rivera had the last Vancouver hit with a two-out knock to left in the eighth inning but he would not get any further.
Pfaadt just had his way with the Canadians hitters all night long as evidenced by the fact that cleanup hitter De Los Santos had just three at-bats.
Zac Cook made his C’s debut in left field and batted ninth but went 0-for-3 on the night. Clarke made his return to the lineup after a 12-day absence but was also hitless in his three at-bats. The former Vanderbilt backstop injured his hand behind the plate on a backswing from Everett’s Zach De Loach.
Vancouver finds itself 5-1/2 games back of Eugene for second place in the High-A West and still nine games back of Everett for top spot. The C’s are back at .500 with 31 wins and 31 losses.
The third game of this six-game series goes Thursday in another 7:05 pm start. The C’s have yet to announce a starter for this one. Slade Cecconi gets the call for Hillsboro. The game is available on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
C’s Alumni Report
Buffalo bounced Lehigh Valley 9-2 Wednesday.
- Cullen Large (2017) – 0/3, BB
- Richard Ureña (2014) – 2/4, 2B
- Logan Warmoth (2017) – 1/4, R
- Nash Knight (2016) – 0/3, BB
- Dany Jiménez (2017) – 1.0IP 1H 0R/ER 0BB 2K (H, 2)
- Patrick Murphy (2016) – 1.1IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 2K
New Hampshire doubled up Hartford 10-5.
- Tanner Kirwer (2018, 2021) – 2/4, BB, RBI, 3SB, 3R
- Chavez Young (2017) – 2/5, RBI
- Otto Lopez (2018) – 3/6, 2-2B (20), 3RBI, R
- L.J. Talley (2021) – 2/4, BB, 2B, RBI, 2R
- Vinny Capra (2018) – 3/4, 2HR (6), 2BB, 4RBI
- Fitz Stadler (2018) – 2.0IP 0H 0R/ER 1BB 3K (SV, 1)
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