The Vancouver Canadians trounced the Tri-City Dust Devils with an emphatic 10-0 win at Nat Bailey Stadium on Thursday.
Vancouver starter Trenton Wallace turned back Tr-City with a 1-2-3 first inning. His second pitch of the game was taken deep to the warning track in center field by D’Shawn Knowles before Devonte Brown tracked it down for the first out. The inning ended with Arol Vera striking out swinging.
The second pitch of the game from Tri-City southpaw José Salvador was taken into the left field bullpen as Michael Turconi homered to give the C’s a 1-0 lead.
Wallace struck out Osmy Gregorio to open the second but surrendered a two-out double down the left field corner by Joe Stewart. He was left in scoring position when Wallace got Christian Sepulveda to ground out to short.
Riley Tirotta doubled the Canadians lead by taking Salvador’s first pitch of the second inning deep over the center field wall in his first at-bat of the season.
The Dust Devils got another runner into scoring position in the third inning when Knowles singled to center and stole second base with two outs but Wallace—who opened the frame with a strikeout of Gregorio—got Sepulveda to ground out to short.
The C’s got their third straight leadoff homer in the third off Salvador when Turconi connected again for a shot into the seating area of the C’s left field bullpen to make it 3-0.
Rainer Nuñez then blooped one into center for a broken-bat single and Alex De Jesus got his second hit of the game by punching one to left. De Jesus was forced out on a 5-4 fielder’s choice from Cade Doughty but Tirotta drew a walk to load the bases. Brown would unload them with a blast off the top of the left field porch for a grand slam to give Monty’s Mounties a 7-0 advantage.
Nathan Burns took over on the mound after Brown’s blast. The Dust Devils tried to get something going in the fourth when Vera opened the inning with a walk. Alexander Ramirez was grazed by a Wallace 3-2 pitch with two outs before Sepulveda grounded out to third.
Wallace would wrap up his outing with a 1-2-3 fifth inning by ringing up Knowles swinging for the third out.
The C’s had a chance to pile on in the fifth inning when Nuñez made it to third on a throwing error by Dust Devils shortstop Adrian Placencia. A wild pitch and.a De Jesus walk ended the night for Burns. Dakota Donovan came in to strike out Doughty and Tirotta swinging but loaded the bases by walking Brown. Donovan would strike out the side by whiffing Jommer Hernández.
Naswell Paulino entered the game in the sixth for Vancouver and the game was delayed after Placencia was hit in the left hand by a pitch but it apparently made contact with the knob of the bat. The Tri-City shortstop remained in the game and drew a leadoff walk. Paulino then retired the next three men he faced, including a strikeout by Gregorio, to get out of the frame.
Turconi was robbed of a third hit in the seventh inning when Vera ranged over the second base bag and made a strong throw to get the former Wake Forest Demon Deacon at first.
Conor Larkin took the ball in the seventh for Vancouver and worked around a two-out walk by Casey Dana and a wild pitch by getting Brendan Tinsman looking at strike three.
The Canadians would add a field goal to their converted touchdown in the seventh against Jake Smith. Nuñez got things started with a walk and De Jesus and Doughty followed with base hits to left to load the bases. Brown then heard ball four to bring in Nuñez with run number eight. One out later, Hernández found a hole with a seeing eye single to shallow center to send De Jesus and Doughty home. Willian Suarez was called in from the Tri-City bullpen to end the frame with a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Estiven Machado.
Larkin got a strikeout of Knowles to start the eighth but a wild pitch allowed Knowles to get on base. The former Penn State Nittany Lion would still face the minimum as he got Placencia to look at strike three before getting Vera to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
Double plays were contagious in the late going when Turconi’s leadoff walk was wiped out by a Gabby Martinez 5-4-3 twin killing.
Mason Fluharty was brought into finish up the ninth for Vancouver. The lefty from Liberty sandwiched a Ramirez strikeout with one-pitch outs, including a Stewart flyout to right to end the ball game.
C-Notes
It’s always nice to see good things happen to good people. Case in point – Riley Tirotta. During Tuesday’s home opener, Suarez threw a wild pitch that allowed Devonte Brown to score the winning run in the ninth. The Dust Devils reliever scrambled to cover the plate but did a face plant after trying to apply the tag on the throw by Tinsman after the ball caromed off the backstop. Suarez was shaken up but C’s broadcaster Tyler Zickel noted that Tirotta checked to make sure Suarez was okay during the team’s celebration. Some good karma came Tirotta’s way Thursday when he homered in his first at-bat of the year.
The C’s begin the afternoon phase of this six-game series at the Nat. The first pitch on Friday is at 1:05 p.m. and that is expected to be thrown by Abdiel Mendoza. The Dust Devils will go with Chase Chaney. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel.
Radar Gun Rundown
Wallace’s range was from 79-92 miles per hour with strikeouts of 88, 89 and 87.
Paulino’s punchout was at 79 and he was up to 93. Larkin was at 76 with punchouts at 92 and 82. Fluharty had one offering at 88.
C-IG
C-Tweet
C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog 