The Vancouver Canadians could not cash in on their many opportunities as they lost to the Everett AquaSox 4-2 in 10 innings at Nat Bailey Stadium on a rainy Tuesday night.
The first two runs of the game belonged to the Frogs in the seventh inning. Cole Barr drew a one-out walk before Spencer Packard hit a two-out, two-run home run over the right-center field wall off Alex Nolan.
The C’s tied it in the seventh against Everett reliever Kyle Hill. A leadoff walk by Andrés Sosa and a one-out walk by Trevor Schwecke came home on a two-run double to left by P.K. Morris. Everett left fielder Colin Davis started a relay to shortstop James Parker and his throw was on the money but Charlie Welch dropped the ball at the plate and that allowed Schwecke to slide in safely with the tying run.
The AquaSox would pull ahead in the 10th inning. With Welch already on second base due to the extra inning rule, Jol Concepcion walked Trent Tingelstad and Davis before balking home Welch. Concepion went on to walk Justin Lavey and Andrew Thomas with the latter free pass scoring Tingelstad.
C-Notes
Morris had Vancouver’s first hit with a leadoff double to left in the second inning that was just fair down the left field line off Everett starter and MLB Pipeline‘s #11 Mariners prospect Adam Macko. Garrett Spain drew a one-out walk but Miguel Hiraldo grounded into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to put runners at the corners but Davis Schneider grounded out to third.
Other C’s opportunities to go by the wayside.
3rd inning – Zach Britton had a one-out walk but Macko struck out the side looking. The Slovakian-born lefty—raised in Ireland and Alberta—bamboozled Addison Barger with curveballs at 65 and 67 miles per hour before dialing it up to 94. Macko was up to 95 at one point.
4th inning – a two-out infield single to second by Garrett Spain that Lavey could not barehand, a stolen base and a Hiraldo walk were stranded when Schneider flied out to right.
6th inning – a Barger walk and stolen base, a Morris walk and double steal and a Riley Tirotta free pass loaded the bases with nobody out but AquaSox reliever Tyler Driver wiggled his way out of the jam by whiffing Spain and Hiraldo before Keenan chased down a foul pop up near the first base dugout off the bat of Schneider.
7th inning – Tirotta walked after Morris’ game-tying double but Brendan McGuigan came out of the Everett bullpen to get Spain to ground out to first for out number three.
8th Inning – Hiraldo doubled off the wall in center field to begin the inning and stole third base with two outs but Schneider, Sosa and Britton all struck out against McGuigan.
10th inning – With pinch-runner Hugo Cardona taking over for Morris as the placed runner, Hiraldo doubled to center and Schneider drew a two-out to load the bases but Frogs reliever Leon Hunter rung up Sosa on a called strike three to end the game. Hunter struck out five in his two innings of work to earn the win.
Morris and Hiraldo had four of the five Canadians hits with Spain getting the other. Spain also got on board twice with a walk. Every Vancouver batter had at least one walk with Tirotta drawing two but the C’s were a woeful 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, stranding 14 men on base and striking out 19 times.
Barger had two stolen bases with Spain, Morris and Hiraldo swiping one each.
Vancouver starter Sem Robberse had traffic to deal with on the bases for the first four innings but he kept Everett off the scoreboard.
- 1st inning – stranded a two-out double from Welch by striking out Tingelstad swinging.
- 2nd inning – stranded a Lavey walk and Thomas single with one out with by striking out Parker (despite a wild pitch that advanced the runners) and Cole Barr swinging after getting Keenan on an unassisted putout at first to start the frame.
- 3rd inning – stranded one-out singles by Packard and Welch by getting Tingelstand on a 6-4 fielder’s choice (which Robberse trying to get the out at first but could not stretch his leg far enough) with an inning-ending whiff of Tyler Keenan.
- 4th inning – stranded a one-out free pass to Thomas by getting Parker to strike out swinging and Barr to fly out.
Robberse punctuated his five shutout innings with an inning-ending K of Welch to complete a 1-2-3 inning. He struck out seven against the four hits and two walks he allowed. Five of his eight outs in play were on the ground.
Nolan got around a leadoff walk to Tingelstad in the sixth by striking out the side swinging as he sat down Keenan, Lavey and Thomas. He struck out four in his two innings but allowed two runs on a hit and two walks.
Ryan Boyer made his Nat Bailey Stadium in the eighth. He walked Lavey with two outs but got Davis swinging and Thomas looking before and after. Boyer struck out Parker swinging and Barr looking to begin the ninth but former Blue Jays farmhand Alberto Rodriguez lined a two-out double to right. Rodriguez is Seattle’s number eight prospect according to MLB Pipeline who came to the Mariners organization in a trade for pitcher Taijuan Walker in 2020. After a discussion on the mound, Boyer issued an intentional walk to Packard before freezing Welch with a reverse K to get out of the inning.
Concepcion took the loss by walking all four men he faced in the 10th. Mark Simon struck out Parker and Barr swinging before getting Rodriguez to fly out to strand the bases loaded.
Radar Gun Rundown
Robberse was up to 93 miles per hour, settling in the 90-92 range and 82 on the low end. His strikeouts came in at 90, 85, 85, 82, 85, 85 and 84.
Nolan’s first pitch was clocked at 95 and had strikeouts at 82, 91, 92 and 84. He was also at 80 and 93.
Boyer had punchouts at 94, 79, 92, 94 and 91. Concepcion was in the 92-94 range and Simon was up to 92 with a strikeout at 85.
Congratulations to righthander Trent Palmer for winning the Northwest League Pitcher of the Week award. Palmer spun six perfect innings in Hillsboro on Sunday, striking out eight. Palmer is the second C’s hurler to win the NWL’s weekly honour for the week of April 11-17 after Chad Dallas walked one before retiring 15 in a row in Tri-City April 13.
Vancouver falls back to .500 at 10 wins and 10 losses while Everett improves to 8-13.
Weather permitting, the second game of this series is set for 7:05 p.m. tonight at Nat Bailey Stadium. Hunter Gregory is scheduled to be on the hill for Monty’s Mounties for Star Wars Night May the 4th. The other probable starters for Vancouver for the remainder of the series are Naswell Paulino, Chad Dallas, Adam Kloffenstein and Trent Palmer. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
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