The Vancouver Canadians could not make it three in a row over the Everett AquaSox as they lost 9-7 at Everett Memorial Stadium Friday.
The good news for Vancouver was starter Paxton Schultz striking out the side in the first inning. The bad news is he gave up a two-out solo home run to Jake Anchia to give the AquaSox the first lead of the game.
Schultz struck out two more batters in the second but he also gave up two more runs. He walked Dariel Gomez and surrendered a double to Connor Hoover to start the inning. Schultz struck out Joseph Rosa but a wild pitch allowed Gomez to score. After Liam Sabino struck out, Kennie Taylor kept the inning going with a full-count walk and Victor Labrada singled to score Hoover but C’s right fielder Eric Rivera cut down Labrada at second on a 9-6 putout to end the inning.
The third inning saw Schultz strike out two more batters but he surrendered another run. Anchia tripled with one out after a strikeout of Cade Marlowe. Tyler Keenan then went down swinging and the count went to 3-and-2 on Gomez before a base hit scored Anchia to make it 4-0 Everett.
The Vancouver offence came to life in the fourth inning off Everett righty Tim Elliott. A one-out walk by Tanner Morris was sent to third on a Luis De Los Santos double to left, the first hit of the game for Vancouver. Spencer Horwitz scored Morris with a groundout to short to to get the C’s on the board. Will Robertson then doubled to left drive in De Los Santos before scoring on a triple to center by Sebastian Espino. Philip Clarke was hit by a pitch and up stepped Andres Guerra to the plate. He would double to right to score Espino with the tying run.
The C’s tried to come back in the ninth when Rivera and Lantigua were walked by Kyle Hill before Morris flied out to left and De Los Santos hit to a fielder’s choice to force out Lantigua. De Los Santos took second on defensive indifference and he and Rivera would score on a Horwitz double to right
The Canadians would take the lead in the seventh inning off Brendan McGuigan. Rafael Lantigua would reach on a one=out infield single that McGuigan could not handle. Lantigua then stole second base and came home on a De Los Santos single up the middle.
The AquaSox answered back after the seventh inning stretch. Labrada singled with one out off Justin Maese, stole second base and scored the tying run on a Marlowe base hit. Marlowe then swiped second and made it to third and home on two wild pitches, the latter resulting in a walk to Anchia to give the Frogs a 6-5 advantage.
Everett added to their lead in the eighth off Cobi Johnson who issued one-out walks to Hoover, Justin Lavey and Sabino to load the bases. That was followed by RBI singles by Kennie Taylor and Labrada to make it an 8-5 game. Johnson struck out Marlowe before being replaced by Parker Caracci but Caracci’s wild pitch allowed Sabino to score the ninth Everett run.
The C’s rallied against Kyle Hill in the top of the ninth. Rivera and Lantigua drew walks but a Morris fly out and a De Los Santos fielder’s choice left runners at the corners with two away. Horwitz would score Rivera and De Los Santos with a double to right to spell the end of the line for Hill. Nate Fisher came out of the pen to get Robertson to ground out to short to end the game.
C-Notes
Horwitz worked a leadoff walk against Elliott in the second but was called out after Sebastian Espino was called out for batter’s interference to end the inning.
Morris doubled with one out in the fifth and Horwitz drew a two-out walk but Robertson struck out swinging to strand the two runners.
Espino singled to short to begin the sixth but was doubled off at first on a Clarke fly out to right and a Rivera single to right opened the seventh but he was picked off at first before the C’s scored the go-ahead run.
De Los Santos, Horwitz and Espino all had two hits with Horwitz knocking home three of the five runs driven in by that trio.
The threesome of Lantigua, Morris and Rivera all had a hit and a walk with Lantigua stealing his 14th base of the year. All nine C’s reached base safely and eight had at least one hit.
Schultz gave up four runs over four innings on five hits and two walks and struck out eight in his 85-pitch outing.
Willy Gaston followed Schultz’s 1-2-3 fourth inning with one of his own in the fifth and navigated his way around on a one-out single to Gomez, a wild pitch and a Lavey two-out walk in a shutout sixth. Gaston had one strikeout in his two innings of work.
Maese got just one out and gave up two runs on two hits and a walk with one strikeout. Johnson stranded a runner for Maese but allowed three runs on two hits and three walks along with two punch outs. Caracci got the last out of the eighth but allowed one of three inherited runners to score.
The C’s— now 10 games below .500 at 39-49—will start C.J. Van Eyk on the mound. The AquaSox has not revealed who will start for them. First pitch is at 7:05 pm on CanadiansBaseball.com.
There’s no word on whether the Vancouver Canadians will play at Nat Bailey Stadium in 2021. The Toronto Blue Jays returned to the Dome July 30, the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association returned home to Shaw Park August 3 and Equipe Quebec—the combination of the Quebec and Trois Rivieres teams in the Frontier League—are also back playing north of the border. Combine that with the Vancouver Whitecaps set to host Los Angeles at BC Place Saturday, August 21 and it leaves one wondering why nothing has been announced for the Canadians yet. There has to be an announcement soon because the clock is ticking towards the September 7-19 homestand for the final two series of the season.
C’s Alumni Report
Buffalo doubled up Rochester 6-3 Friday.
- Otto Lopez – 2/4, 2RBI, SB (4)
- Cavan Biggio – 0/3, BB
- Josh Palacios – 0/4, R
- Richard Ureña – 2/4, RBI
- Cullen Large – 1/4, R, SB (3)
- Nash Knight – 1/4, R, SB (1)
- Zach Logue – 6.0IP 5H 0R/ER 0BB 5K (W, 5-2)
- Fitz Stadler – 1.0IP 0H 0R/ER 0BB 1K (SV, 1)
New Hampshire hammered Harrisburg 7-0.
Miguel Castro had a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in the New York Mets 6-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
- Tanner Kirwer – 2/4, BB, HR (3), 3RBI, SB (13), 2R
- Samad Taylor – 0/4, BB, R
- Vinny Capra – 2/4, BB, HR (8), 3RBI, R
- Chavez Young – 1/5
- Ryan Gold – 1/4, R
- Nick Podkul – 1/2, 2BB, RBI, SB (3), R
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