The Vancouver Canadians outshined the Eugene Emeralds 7-2 at P.K. Park on Thursday.
It was a 2-1 ballgame in favour of Eugene until the C’s broke through in the top of the seventh against Emeralds reliever Nick Morreale. Ryan McCarty walked, Jace Bohrofen singled to right and Nick Goodwin took one for the team on the left shoulder to load the bases with nobody out. Jeff Wehler worked a bases-loaded walk to tie the game at 2-2. Jackson Hornung hit into a 4-6-3 double play but Bohrofen came in to score the go-ahead run. Brennan Orf then capped the four-run rally with a two-run home run to right-center field to plate Goodwin and put Vancouver ahead 5-2.
The C’s loaded the bases with nobody out again in the eighth, this time against Ben Madison. Jommer Hernández struck out swinging but reached first base on a wild pitch when the ball went to the backstop. Back-to-back singles up the middle by Brown and McCarty filled the bags and a walk to Jace Bohrofen allowed Hernández to cross the plate. A one-out sacrifice fly by Wehler scored Brown for the seventh Vancouver tally. Hornung had an infield single to third that hit the third base bag to load the bases again but Orf struck out swinging.
The Emeralds scored first in their first at-bat against C’s starter Kevin Miranda. A one-out single to left and stolen base by Quinn McDaniel came home on an Onil Perez two-out knock to center past a diving Goodwin at short.
The Canadians pulled even with their first run of the series in the third against Eugene starter Jack Choate. A one-out infield single to third by Dasan Brown that Josh Wishkoski nearly caught with a diving grab towards the line, a wild pitch and a two-out double to shallow right by Bohrofen that Tanner O’Tremba could just not get a bead tied the game at 1-1.
The tie did not last as Eugene rallied with two outs in the bottom of the third against Miranda. McDaniel was robbed of a hit by Bohrofen who made a diving grab on a sinking liner for the second but the Em’s forged award when A Scott Bandura walk came all the way around to score on a Perez double to center. Miranda hit Wishkoski with the pitch on the left arm but a diving stop by Goodwin at short and a flip to second resulted in Wishkoski being forced out in a close play to end the rally.
Anders Tolhurst was the winning pitcher in this one.
C-Notes
Brown—who played in left field to make way for Jaden Rudd in center—made sure there would not be a no-hitter with an infield single to short to start the game. McCarty followed with a walk before Bohrofen struck out. Brown tagged up to go to third on a Goodwin fly ball to center but McCarty was doubled off at first on an 8-6-3-4 inning-ending double play. Brown had a four-hit night and was on base for a fifth time when he reached base on a Justin Wishkoski throwing error at third with two outs in the ninth.
The C’s had a runner on in the second and fourth when Orf drew a two-out walk and got to second on a wild pitch and Wehler had a leadoff single to left. They loaded the bases in the fifth when Brown got another infield single to second with one out and moved to second on a Perez passed ball. Another infield single to second by Bohrofen and a hit by pitch to Goodwin loaded the bags with two outs but Em’s reliever Julio Rodriguez struck out Wehler to get out of the inning.
The C’s put two more runners in the sixth when Hornung singled to center field to lead things off and Rudd reached on an infield single to short when Bench had the ball go off his chest with one out. Morreale put out the fire for Rodriguez by fanning Brown and McCarty.
The Emeralds had a runner in scoring position against Miranda when Tanner O’Tremba walked with one out, stole second uncontested and moved to third on a groundout to first but Alexander Suarez struck out swinging for the third out.
Miranda made it through 3-2/3 innings before Alex Amalfi came on in relief. He stranded a two-out double to left by Suarez by getting Turner Hill to line out to left.
Amalfi walked the first two men he faced in the bottom of the fifth but he stranded the free passes to McDaniel and Bandura thanks in large part to two punchouts, striking out Perez looking and Justin Bench swinging to end the inning.
The bottom of the sixth saw the first two men get aboard against Amalfi when O’Tremba walked and Garrett Frechette singled to left. Amalfi retired the next two hitter before Anders Tolhurst came in to induce a comebacker to the mound by McDaniel to keep Eugene from scoring.
The seventh inning saw Tolhurst have to stay on his toes when he snared a liner from Perez after striking out Bandura for the first out. The Em’s brought the potential tying run to the plate when Justin Wishkoski drew a walk and Bench singled to left but Tolhurst put an end to things by striking out O’Tremba.
Justin Kelly and Rafael Ohashi worked perfect frames in the eighth and ninth respectively with Ohashi striking out Bandura looking for the penultimate out of the game. C’s manager Brent Lavallee and trainer Rob Shifrin visited Ohashi one pitch into the final batter of the game but was allowed to finish out the game.
Geison Urbaez takes the ball on Friday for the C’s in Game 3 of this series against the Em’s. You can listen to the call of Tyler Zickel on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game is also on MiLB.TV at 7:05 p.m.
All the best to 2022 Vancouver Canadians lefthander Jimmy Rollins on Wednesday. The Orlando native was traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Texas Rangers for cash. The 20th-round pick out of Rollins College in Florida posted a 3.82 earned run average with the C’s with a strikeout-walk total of 46-17 in 35-1/3 innings. His Vancouver tenure was bracketed by stints in Low-A Dunedin and Double-A New Hampshire and he put together a composite 2.59 ERA with 98 strikeouts in 76-1/3 innings. Rollins spent most of last year with New Hampshire and made three appareances with Triple-A Buffalo. The 6-foot-3 lefty pitched twice for the Herd this season before being assigned to the Development List on Tuesday. He has now been assigned to Triple-A Round Rock.
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