The Vancouver Canadians walked off the Eugene Emeralds 2-0 in 10 innings at Nat Bailey Stadium Sunday.
Emeralds leadoff hitter Grant McCray started first inning rallies with a hit by pitch and bunt single to spark Eugene’s first two wins of the series. He tried to get things going again when he singled to right off Canadians starter Hunter Gregory. The righthander struck out Aeverson Arteaga and Logan Wyatt swinging but McCray did steal second on the Wyatt whiff. Gregory got out of the inning when Josh Kasevich snared a line drive near the third base line on the backhand to take away an extra-base hit from Jared Dupere for the third out.
2022 San Francisco Giants second-round pick Carson Whisenhunt made his High-A debut on the mound for the Emeralds. Other than an Alan Roden one-out double over the head of right fielder Victor Bericoto, the former East Carolina Pirate recorded a pair of strikeouts and got some help from Wyatt at first base and he just kept his foot on the bag after a wide throw from Ghordy Santos at second on a Rainer Nuñez ground ball.
Bericoto singled to center out of the reach of a diving Alex De Jesus at short to begin the top of the second. Kasevich made another solid play at the hot corner as he charged in on a slow chopper to retire Luis Toribio at first. Gregory kept Bericoto anchored to second as Max Wright flew out to left on the next pitch and after Santos was charged with strike one for not being ready in the batter’s box, Gregory sawed off the Emeralds second baseman on a ground ball to second on the next pitch to end the inning.
Whisenhunt whizzed through the second and third innings with a pair of punchouts in each frame for a pair of 1-2-3 frames. Gregory had a three-up, three down inning of his own in between to end his day, getting Dues to tap back to the mound, McCray to strike out looking and Arteaga to pop out to short one pitch later.
Eric Pardinho put together a perfect inning in the top of the fourth in Vancouver with Dupere taking one to the warning track in center where Dasan Brown made the catch. Whisenhunt finished his first outing with a flourish by retiring 11 men in a row to round out four shutout frames.
The Emeralds got their leadoff man aboard in the fifth when Pardinho walked Toribio on a 3-2 pitch but Pardinho got Wright to tap one back to the mound and he got the 1-6 force out but not the 1-6-3 double play. Santos struck out swinging but Dues lined a 3-2 pitch up the middle to get Wright over to third. Dues would swipe second base but Pardinho got McCray to line out to left to keep the Emeralds at bay.
José Cruz kept up Whisenhunt’s tradition with another perfect inning for the Emeralds in the fifth. Lefthander Naswell Paulino took over for Pardinho and struck out Arteaga swinging on three pitches. He retired Wyatt with a comebacker to the mound but Dupere extended the frame with an infield single to short. The inning ended when Nuñez snagged a liner off the bat of Bericoto near the first base bag.
The Canadians had their first multi-baserunner inning in the sixth against Nick Sinacola. A one-out single by Karl Ellison and a two-out walk by Roden were stranded when Gabby Martinez struck out on a foul tip.
Eugene was set down in order by Paulino in the seventh as he got Wright to go down swinging and Sinacola rung up two batters in the seventh to keep the game at 0-0 after seven innings.
Lefthander Mason Fluharty took care of the Emeralds on eight pitches to end the top of the eighth. The C’s began the bottom half of the inning with a Kasevich base hit that was lined off Wyatt’s glove at first base. Kasevich slipped when his left foot hit the bag when rounding first and appeared to hurt his ankle. There was some light rain falling in the late going and that appeared to be the culprit to Kasevich’s woes. The former Oregon Duck was replaced by pinch-runner Michael Turconi but he would not go any further as Sinacola struck out the side with two reverse Ks.
With Turconi at second base and Doughty moving to third base to replace Kasevich in the top of the ninth, Turconi did not get a lot of mustard on a Wyatt ground ball with a lollipop throw but it was just in time to get the Emeralds first baseman. Fluharty then sat down Dupere on three straight pitches before making way for T.J. Brock. The former Ohio Buckeye needed two pitches to get Bericoto to fly out to right.
Sinacola would ring up Nuñez looking on a 3-2 pitch to complete a 1-2-3 inning to send the game to a 10th inning.
With Bericoto beginning the inning at second base, Brock struck out Toribio swinging and continued his strikeout ways after walking Wright by whiffing Santos and Dues to give the C’s another chance to win in the bottom of the 10th.
With pinch-runner Garrett Spain replacing Nuñez at second base, Tyler Myrick struck out Doughty swinging for the first out but his next pitch was deposited over the wall in center by De Jesus for a two-run home run to give the C’s the walk-off and series-clinching victory.
C-Notes
The Canadians head down to Hillsboro to begin a six-game series on Tuesday. Michael Dominguez is listed as Tuesday’s probable starter for Monty’s Mounties. Tyler Zickel will broadcast the game on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game can also be seen on MiLB.TV.
The Canadians next homestand is Tuesday, May 9 when the Everett AquaSox make their first visit to Nat Bailey Stadium.
Radar Gun Rundown
Gregory had strikeouts of 83 and 82 and up to 92. Pardinho had a strikeout at 82 and was up to 92. Paulino had one whiff at 79 and touched 95. Fluharty rung up a batter at 90 and was at 79-92.
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