Dylan Rock (#27) lifts off the batting helmet of Nick Goodwin as he celebrates with Dasan Brown (#6). Ryan McCarty (#22), Jeff Wehler (#7), Kendry Rojas (#16) and Jaden Rudd (#24) run toward the mob scene in the outfield.
The Vancouver Canadians snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a come-from-behind 8-7 victory over the Hillsboro Hops at Nat Bailey Stadium on Sunday.
The Hops jumped C’s starter Pat Gallagher in the top of the first. The second pitch of the game resulted in a runner in scoring position when Ryan McCarty put too much mustard on a throw on a ground ball to third base by Andrew Pintar. Two ground balls later, Pintar would complete his trip around the bases. Tommy Troy put one into play at third base and Pintar managed to beat McCarty’s throw home for the first run of the game. Troy made it to first on the fielder’s choice and stole second base before scoring on a two-out double by Christian Cerda that just eluded the reach of Dylan Rock in right field. The inning ended when C’s catcher Jommer Hernández started a pick off of Cerda at second base in a 2-6-5-4 play on the scoreboard
The Canadians would take the lead in the top of the third against Hillsboro starter Joe Elbis. Jean Arnaez doubled to start the frame and Dasan Brown followed with a walk. They would come home when Yardley, Pennsylvania native McCarty went yard to the left field porch to catapult the C’s to a 3-2 lead.
Hillsboro surged ahead again with a five-run sixth with just one hit. Josh Mollerus handed out a pair of walks to David Martin and Cerda with one away. The bases were loaded when Gavin Conticello hit a sharp grounder that glanced off the glove of a diving Brennan Orf at first base. Manny Peña was called on an infield fly rule on a pop-up to third for the second out. The third out proved to be elusive. Mollerus was a strike away from getting out of danger but he lost Cole Roberts—son of former major leaguer and current Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts—on a 3-2 count to walk home Martin with the tying run. Brett Johnson also worked the count full and unfortunately for Mollerus, he issued another ball four to send Cerda home to put the Hops ahead.
Anders Tolhurst was brought out of the bullpen for Vancouver and also had a 3-2 count to Hillsboro’s leadoff man Pintar. Tolhurst got Pintar to swing and miss but Hernández could not corral the ball from behind the plate as it caromed off his shinguard. The ball went towards the bench outside the Hillsboro first base dugout. Hernández got to the ball but his throw to Orf missed the mark. The ball changed direction to Arnaez at second and his throw to the plate with Tolhurst covering was not in time as Johnson scored on a headfirst slide. The ball never left the infield but three runs scored on the play thanks to a 3-2 count with two away and the runners taking off with the pitch. Tolhurst finally ended the frame by getting Cerda looking at strike three.
The score would remain 7-3 for Hillsboro until the bottom of the ninth. Vancouver, BC native Eli Saul was looking to get the final three outs of the game and got the first two batters he faced before plunking Rock in the left shoulder. The game looked to be over when Hernández hit a routine ground ball at second but it handcuffed Peña. With Estiven Machado pinch-running for Hernández, Jean Arnaez took one for the team when he was drilled on the left arm by Saul. That loaded the bases for Brown to set up an all-Canadian batter/pitcher duel. Brown—Oakville, Ontario’s finest—cut the four-run deficit in half with a base hit to right field to drive in Rock and Machado.
Hillsboro skipper Javier Colina pulled Saul from the game to bring in another righty in Zane Russell to face the red-hot hitting McCarty. The former Penn State Abington Nittany Lion got into a 3-2 count and on the eighth pitch he faced, he cued one down the right field line to drive home Arnaez and Brown to tie the game at 7-7.
The Hops nearly got the game into the 10th inning when Bohrofen foul tipped a 2-2 pitch but the Hillsboro backstop Martin could not hang on. He tagged Bohrofen and made a move toward the dugout but home plate umpire Tim Berrera was not buying what Martin was selling. Two pitches later, Bohrofen heard ball four to extend the inning for Goodwin. The former Kansas State Wildcat flared one between Peña at second base and right field. Johnson made a valiant diving attempt grin right as the crowd held its collective breath wondering if he made the catch. However, the ball skidded away from Johnson and it touched green. McCarty raised his arms as he reached the pentagon to score the game-winning run.
That set off the chase for Goodwin as it looked like he was going to run for the end zone by zig-zagging his way to the outfield before his happy teammates caught up to him near midfield.
C-Notes
Not to be lost in the shuffle were the contributions of Orf. Most notable was putting Saul through the wringer with a 13-pitch at-bat before it ended in a fly ball to left. That forced Saul to use more bullets than he wanted.
In his first at-bat of the day, Orf hit one well to the right field corner in the second inning that Johnson was able to haul for the first out. It was a productive out as Jeff Wehler—who led off the frame with a single to center field off Elbis on a 3-0 count—tagged up to get to second base. The C’s could not bring him in.
With the glove, Orf made a key contribution by digging out a throw from McCarty to retire Cerda for the first out in the fourth. That was especially key when Conticello followed with a double to right field. Gallagher ended the inning by striking out Peña and Roberts.
In the top of the second, Gallagher got a helping hand from the defence. He surrendered a leadoff single to left by Conticello which he blooped between McCarty at third and Bohrofen at left field. Bohrofen picked up the ball and fired a seed to Arnaez at second to cut down Conticello. Arnaez tagged Conticello on the foot in front of the second base bag for the out and shook off the pain of getting spiked on his glove hand.
The top of the third saw two Hillsboro Hops reach base when Pintar singled to center and stole second before a Juan Corniel walk with one out. Gallagher battled back by striking out Troy looking and Martin looking.
In the fifth, Hernández erased a Johnson leadoff walk with another 2-4 caught stealing on the scorecard. Mollerus relieved Gallagher after a Pintar walk and he was helped out by Rock who showed good closing speed on a shallow fly ball to right by Corniel. Hernández ended the frame by firing another dart to second to cut down a Pintar stolen base attempt on another 2-4 play.
Vancouver did not get much going in the middle innings with Rock drawing walks in the fourth and seventh but was forced out on the front end of a double play each time. McCarty had a free pass in the fifth which also went for naught. The Hops got out of the fifth thanks to Conticello knocking down a line drive at first which rolled away a few feet into foul territory and he dove to the first base bag just in time to retire Bohrofen for the third out.
Rock’s walk in the seventh was issued by Wyatt Wendell—son of former major league reliever Turk Wendell—but that was his only blemish in his two innings.
Vancouver tried to get something cooking in the bottom of the eighth when Brown worked a leadoff walk and Bohrofen was hit by a pitch by Peñiel Otaño above the left foot with one out but Goodwin hit into a 6-4-3 twin killing. Goodwin more than made up for that in his next appearance.
The relievers in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings for Monty’s Mounties were on point. Tolhurst ended the inning by striking out Cerda, Naswell Paulino fanned Conticello and Peña in the eighth and Rafael Ohashi took care of a one-out walk to Pintar when Corniel lined into a 5-3 double play. Pintar had taken off with the pitch and was caught in no man’s land as he was easily doubled off at first.
Ohashi was the winning pitcher for Vancouver as he collected his first win in the Northwest League.
The Canadians will head to Eugene for a six-game series starting on Wednesday instead of the usual Tuesday. A doubleheader is scheduled for Saturday. Wednesday’s game begins at 7:05 p.m. Tyler Zickel will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com Chris McElvain is listed as the probable starter for Vancouver.
Radar Gun Rundown
Pat Gallagher was in the 78-93 mile per hour range and had strikeouts at 89, 80 and 92. Josh Mollerus checked in at 82-93. Anders Tolhurst was at 82 with punchouts at 94 and 95. Naswell Paulino had Ks of 92 and 81. Rafael Ohashi was at 85-92.
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