The Vancouver Canadians ended their hellish series in Hillsboro on a winning note with a 2-0 victory over the Hops at Ron Tonkin Field.
Vancouver did not get its first hit off Hillsboro starter Marcos Tineo until Steward Berroa reached base on an infield single to short. P.K. Morris chopped the ball to short but the C’s stayed out of the double play by starting Berroa from first. Berroa stole third and got a tremendous jump on a Trevor Schwecke grounder to third to cross the plate to give the Canadians a 1-0 lead.
Berroa was hit by a pitch on the right hand by Hops lefty Dillon Larsen to open up the ninth. Larsen was replaced by José Santamaria and he walked Morris to move Berroa up to second. Schwecke then pulled a single to left to score Berroa who was almost at third as he had taken off with the pitch before easily crossing home plate.
C-Notes
Alejandro Melean set the tone by striking out the first two men he faced in the first inning, battling back from a 3-1 count to sit down Ryan Bliss before getting A.J. Vukovich to also go down swinging.
Adrian Del Castillo started the bottom of the second for Hillsboro with a triple off the right-center field fence but Melean stranded him. He did it with strikeouts of Tristin English and Spencer Brickhouse to bookend a Miguel Hiraldo diving catch of a low liner off the bat of Caleb Roberts at second base to keep the game at 0-0.
Melean sat down nine in a row before hitting English with a pitch to start the fifth. Roberts then hit into a 4-6-3 double play. Brickhouse drew.a walk but Lyle Lin hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to end the frame.
In total, Melean gave up a hit, walked a batter and hit another over five shutout innings. He struck out four and got five of his six outs in play on the ground to improve to 2-0 on the season.
Conor Larkin relieved Melean in the sixth and struck out Channy Ortiz looking. Bliss then hit a sharp grounder that Hiraldo knocked down at second and his throw just got Bliss at first base as Morris made the stretch for the putout. Larkin went on to strike out Vukovich swinging for the third out.
Alex Nolan worked a 1-2-3 seventh with three straight groundouts but Will McAffer saw the first two Hillsboro batters reach base on a Roberts walk and a Brickhouse single to right on a 1-2 pitch. McAffer battled back to get Lin to foul out to first before striking out Ortiz and Bliss.
Thomas Ruwe allowed a single to right by Tim Tawa with one out in the ninth but Ruwe retired the next two batters he faced with English popping out to Morris at first in foul territory to end the game and earn his first save of the year.
Vancouver’s first baserunner was Hiraldo as he reached on a throwing error by Vukovich at third with two outs in the second inning.
Leo Jiménez returned to the lineup Sunday as the designated hitter after missing the entire series. After hurting himself on a foul ball swinging, he nearly had a double down the left field line but it was ruled foul before he struck out to end the fourth.
After Julio Frias tossed a perfect fifth and sixth, Schwecke singled to short with one out in the seventh off Dillon Larsen and raced to third on a two-out single to right by Hiraldo. A steal of second by Hiraldo put two runners into scoring position for Davis Schneider but he flied out to left to end the inning. Larsen would retire the side in order for Hillsboro in the eighth.
Vancouver had a chance to add more insurance in the ninth with runners at first and second with nobody out but Jiménez and Schneider flied out to center with Hiraldo popping out to second in between.
Schwecke had two hits and both runs batted in for Vancouver. Berroa scored both runs after getting a base hit and taking one for the team. He also added his eighth stolen base of the year. Hiraldo extended his hitting streak to eight games and collected his 13th steal of 2022. Morris had the only walk.
The C’s have one more visit to Ron Tonkin Field for the 2022 regular season and that will take place June 21-26. Vancouver has won just four of the 12 meetings so far this year. Hillsboro will not be north of the border until the weeks of July 12-17 and August 23-28.
Monty’s Mounties won their 20th game against 21 losses. They have the day off Monday before opening a six-game series against the Spokane Indians at Nat Bailey Stadium Tuesday. Sem Robberse is listed as the probable starter for the C’s. The game will be on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m.
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