The Vancouver Canadians suffered a come-from-ahead 3-2 loss to the Everett AquaSox at Nat Bailey Stadium Wednesday.
The C’s got on the board in the first inning when Steward Berroa slapped a ball to left field for a leadoff single. He moved to second on a wild pitch from Fred Villarreal, stole third base and scored on a one-out Leo Jiménez sacrifice fly.
Vancouver got a second leadoff man aboard in the second when Riley Tirotta was hit in the lower back on a full count offering. Tirotta swiped second base and came around to score on a Miguel Hiraldo infield single and a tough throwing error charged to Noelvi Marte. The AquaSox shortstop made a spectacular play getting to the ball heading up the middle before spinning and firing to first. However, Dariel Gomez could not dig out the ball at first which skidded away from him and Tirotta slid home feet first to give Vancouver a 2-0 lead.
That lead disappeared in the third as Everett got two runners aboard with one out as Justin Lavey walked and Colin Davis reached base on an infield single back to the mound. On Davis’ bunt, C’s starter Michael Dominguez tried to throw out Lavey who just rounded second but the ball wound up in center field and that advanced Lavey to third. Davis stole second base before Marte doubled to left to tie the game at 2-2.
The AquaSox snapped the tie in the ninth. Trent Tingelstad singled to left off Will McAffer and pinch-runner Cole Barr stole second. Barr went to third on a wild pitch and he trotted home on a Mike Salvatore double to left.
C-Notes
The defence helped Dominguez face just three batters in the first. Jommer Hernandez threw out a Marte trying to steal second after a leadoff single. Berroa then made a sliding catch on a sinking liner from Rodriguez for the second out. The inning ended on a Parker strikeout.
Sean Wymer also got help from the defence in the fourth inning. A leadoff walk to David Sheaffer and a one-out single to left were stranded when Dasan Brown ran one down in left-center field and tried to double off Sheaffer but the throw was offline. Wymer then struck out Davis to end the frame.
Matt Svanson turned in an impressive seventh inning in his C’s debut. He retired Everett in order on 11 pitches, including a swinging strikeout of Lavey.
McAffer was able to strand a one-out single to left by Rodriguez with swinging strikeouts of Marte and Parker and a Gomez fly out to the warning track in left field. The North Vancouver hurler had punchouts of Sheaffer looking and Lavey swinging in the ninth. McAffer gave up the winning run on three hits and struck out four over two innings.
Dominguez gave up two unearned runs (due to his throwing error) on three hits and struck out two in three innings. Wymer also tossed three frames, holding the Frogs down to a hit and a walk with three punchouts.
The C’s were poised to have a bigger first inning when Berroa stole third with Brown at the plate and nobody out. Berroa was sent back to second after Brown was called for batter’s interference by home plate umpire Zee Zidek. Brown later flied out to shallow center. Berroa later stole third and came home on the Jiménez sac fly.
Vancouver had an opportunity for a multi-run inning in the second inning. Hernandez followed Hiraldo’s base knock with a single to left on a 3-2 pitch in his first Nat Bailey Stadium plate appearance. Hiraldo and Hernandez moved into scoring position on a double steal but Spain struck out looking and Berroa flied out to left.
Jiménez was hit in the back by a Villarreal pitch with one out in the third but Jiménez was thrown out trying to steal second after Damiano Palmegiani struck out swinging.
In the fourth inning, Hiraldo reached on a two-out error at third base by Parker. A steal of second and a wild pitch by Jarod Bayless put Hiraldo at third but he would remain there as Spain struck out swinging.
The fifth inning was a variation of the fourth. Brown beat out a grounder to third after Parker made a diving stop for an infield single. Brown stole second base but Jiménez struck out. Another wild pitch by Bayless moved Brown to third but Palmegiani flied out to right.
In inning number six, Tirotta was walked by Mike Mokma with nobody out. Tirotta got into scoring position on a P.K. Morris groundout to second but Hiraldo flied out to right and Hernandez sharply grounded out to short.
The seventh inning saw Berroa beat out an infield single to first with one out and he stole second base but Brown went down swinging on the play and Jiménez flied out to right.
After going down in order in the eighth against Tim Elliott, the C’s got the potential tying run in scoring position when Spain doubled to left-center field over a leaping Tingelstad with two outs in the ninth but Isaiah Campbell got Berroa to pop out to third to end the game.
Berroa had two hits and two stolen bases to run his total up to 40. Hiraldo also stole two bags to give him 23. Tirotta got his 9th steal while Brown and Hernandez had their first. Brown, Hiraldo and Hernandez all had one base knock with Hernandez also drawing a base on balls. Tirotta was on base twice with a walk and a plunk. Jiménez took one for the team and had a sacrifice fly. Spain had the only extra-base hit with his ninth inning double. Vancouver was 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and eight men were left.
Chad Dallas looks to end the C’s losing streak as he is scheduled to throw the first pitch at 7:05 p.m. Logan Rinehart gets the start for the AquaSox. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
Sem Robberse and Trenton Wallace are listed as the probable starters for Vancouver Friday and Saturday.
Vancouver’s lead in the second half Northwest League standings is down to a half-game against Eugene and 2-1/2 games ahead of Everett. The C’s are 16-9 in the second half and 46-42 overall.
Radar Gun Rundown
Dominguez had strikeouts of 83 and 92 miles per hour and was in the 80-93 range. Wymer whiffed batters at 90, 90 and 78 and was as low as 77. Svanson struck out a batter at 95 and was also at 85. McAffer had strikeouts at 96, 84 and 86 and was up to 98.
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