The Vancouver Canadians lost again to the Hillsboro Hops 5-3 at Ron Tonkin Field Friday.
The C’s hit a couple of longs balls off Hops starter Blake Walston to jump out to a three-run lead in the first half off the game. Davis Schneider started the third inning with a home run to right-center field and Zac Cook also took Walston deep for a two-run shot to right-center to score a Schneider lead off walk in the fifth to make it 3-0 Vancouver.
Hillsboro could not solve Canadians starter Paxton Schultz for the first five innings but a lead off walk to Spencer Brickhouse gave the Hops a glimmer of hope. Schultz struck out Eduardo Diaz before leaving the game and that was where things took a turn for the worse. Andy Yerzy greeted lefty Sean Mellen with a first-pitch double to get Brickhouse over to third before a groundout to third by Tristin English got Brickhouse home with the Hops first run. Blaze Alexander then belted a two-run homer to left-center to tie the game at 3-3.
Hillsboro grabbed the lead in the seventh off Gabriel Ponce when Leodany Perez tripled home a lead off single by Cam Coursey.
The Hops added an insurance run in the eighth off Parker Caracci when English hit a lead off dinger to left-center.
C-Notes
Rafael Lantigua tried to spark a rally in the first inning with a lead off double to left field. He was pushed up to third on a Tanner Morris groundout to short but Orelvis Martinez grounded out to third and Spencer Horwitz flied out to center to leave Lantigua 90 feet away.
Lantigua got on base again in the third with one away after Schneider’s sixth homer of the year when Walston threw away a comebacker to the mound. Morris tapped out to the mound to get Lantigua into scoring position but Martinez flied out to right to end the inning.
Horwitz began the fourth with a ground-rule double and made it as far as third on a Will Robertson two-out groundout to first but Philip Clarke was out number three on a fly out to left.
Morris collected a one-out single after Cook’s second dinger of the year in the fifth but Walston struck out the side by getting Lantigua, Martinez and Horwitz all swinging.
The Canadians were held hitless from that point on by Walston, Liu Fuenmayor and Yaramil Hiraldo until Clarke reached on an infield single to third with two outs in the ninth but Hiraldo got Schneider on a game-ending fly ball to left.
Vancouver had just six hits in this one and were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranding five. Schneider was the only C’s batter to reach base twice with a homer and a walk.
Schultz stood to get the win before the game away. He surrendered one run on four hits and a walk over 5-1/3 innings while compiling strikeout and groundout totals of five apiece. Schultz stranded two-out doubles by Yerzy and Coursey in the fifth. Clarke got Schultz out of the second inning by throwing out Danny Oriente trying to steal second. Schultz was also able to strand a Perez one-out base hit in the third.
Mellen was charged with a blown save as he could not strand a runner of Schultz and gave up two runs on three hits in two-thirds of an inning.
Ponce took the loss after giving up a run on two hits in the seventh but struck out a pair.
Caracci hit a batter along with the solo homer he gave up in the eighth but recorded one strikeout.
Vancouver is 11 games back of a playoff spot in the High-A West and are now in second-last place with a 37-45 record, one half-game behind Hillsboro.
Nick Fraze and Brandon Pfaadt will be the Saturday starters for the C’s and Hops respectively. Game time is 7:05 pm on CanadiansBaseball.com.
C’s Alumni Report
Buffalo lost to Lehigh Valley 10-9 in 10 innings Friday.
- Otto Lopez – 0/4, BB, 2R
- Cullen Large – 1/5
- Nash Knight – 1/2, BB, 2R
- Dany Jiménez – 1.0IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 2K
New Hampshire defeated Hartford 8-5.
- Samad Taylor – 1/5, RBI
- Vinny Capra – 1/5, HR (7), RBI
- L.J. Talley – 2/4, 2R
- Chavez Young – 1/3, 2B, BB, SB (11) 2R
- Kevin Vicuña – 3/4, 2 2B, 4RBI
- Ryan Gold – 0/3, BB
- Nick Podkul – 2/3, BB
- Luis Quinones – 4.2IP 4H 2R/ER 3BB 10K
- Marcus Reyes – 1.1IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 1K, 1-0 IR/S
- Connor Law – 1.0IP 2H 2R/ER 2BB 0K 1HR (W, 2-0)
Alek Manoah improved to 5-1 with five innings of two-run ball and Tayler Saucedo struck out one in a spotless ninth as Toronto beat up Boston 12-4.
Rowdy Tellez doubled and had the walk-off RBI single as Milwaukee edged San Francisco 2-1.
Marcus Stroman allowed just two runs over five innings but suffered the loss as the New York Mets fell to Philadelphia 4-2.
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