The Vancouver Canadians lost their third in a row to the Hillsboro Hops by a score of 7-4 at Ron Tonkin Field Thursday.
The Hops snapped a scoreless tie just two pitches into the fourth inning against C’s starter Sem Robberse. A.J. Vukovich singled on the first pitch and ran all the way home one pitch later on a double by Axel Andueza. After stealing third base, Andueza came home on a one-out single by Elian Mirando to make it 2-0 Hillsboro.
The Canadians rallied for a pair of runs in the fifth against Hops lefty Kyle Backhus. Davis Schneider jumped on the first pitch he saw for a triple to right field and was driven in two pitches later by an Andres Guerra double. Guerra was sacrificed over to third on a bunt to the mound by Justin Ammons and would score on an Eric Rivera double to center.
Hillsboro regained the lead in the sixth when Nick Dalesandro worked the count full before drawing a leadoff walk against Robberse. Dalesandro stole second and got to third on a throwing error by Guerra behind the plate. Mirando then drew a walk and that led to Robberse being replaced on the mound by Hayden Juenger. After a pair of strikeouts by Juenger, a passed ball by Guerra allowed Dalesandro to score the go-ahead run.
Vancouver would tie the game at 3-3 when Schneider took the second pitch he saw from Jose Santamaria over the fence in right-center to open the seventh.
The Hops would break the deadlock in the eighth against Roither Hernandez. A two-run triple by Miranda drove in an Andueza leadoff single and Dalesandro walk. Jose Curpa singled home Miranda for Hillsboro’s sixth run. Elijah Greene—who forced Curpa out at second on a fielder’s choice—got to second on a Luvin Valbuena base hit, was balked over to third by Hernandez and came home on a Leodany Perez grounder to second to complete the scoring.
C-Notes
Tanner Morris reached base on a fielding error by Backhus with two outs in the first inning but Backhus handled the next fielding chance to come his way when Will Robertson tapped back to the mound to end the inning.
Schneider also made it on base courtesy of a two-out throwing error by Curpa at second in the second inning and Guerra followed with a walk but Ammons flied out to right for out number three.
The C’s could not add to their two-run rally in the fifth after Rivera’s one-out RBI double as Addison Barger struck out and Tanner Morris grounded out to first.
Schneider’s ninth home run of the season in the seventh was the last Vancouver hit of the night as the C’s went down in order in the third, fourth, eighth and ninth innings. Kyler Stout struck out the side in the eighth inning and Yaramil Hiraldo whiffed a pair in the ninth.
Schneider had the lone two-hit game for Monty’s Mounties and Guerra had a double and a walk. Rivera’s RBI double was the other Vancouver hit as the 2-6 spots in the batting in order went 0-for-20 with eight strikeouts.
Robberse allowed just a second-inning single and a third-inning walk before running into trouble in the fourth. He also stranded a two-out triple by Vukovich in the fifth by striking out Andueza. Robberse went five-plus innings and was charged with two earned runs out of three on five hits and four walks. He struck out five and produced eight infield outs.
Juenger could only strand one of two Robberse runners but walked one and struck out four over two shutout frames. Juenger got out of the sixth inning by picking off Miranda at second base.
Hernandez took the loss after surrendering four runs on four hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning. Hagen Danner stranded a runner and struck out two of the four men he faced in 1-1/3 shutout innings.
Vancouver is now nine games below .500 at 54-63, one half-game behind 51-59 Hillsboro for fourth place in the High-A West. Hillsboro takes the season series against Vancouver with their 16th win in 27 games.
Paxton Schultz gets his final turn on the mound for Vancouver. Jake Rice will be on the mound for Hillsboro in a 7:05 pm first pitch on CanadiansBaseball.com.
Congratulations goes to the Buffalo Bisons for winning the Northeast Division in the Triple-A East League. The squad—led by 2019 C’s manager Casey Candaele—had 13 position players and 16 pitches with Vancouver connections on the roster.
Congrats also to 2019 and 2021 C’s first baseman Spencer Horwitz for singling in his first Double-A plate appearance with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
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