The Vancouver Canadians rallied to defeat the Hillsboro Hops 7-4 at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday.
The C’s scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second off Hops starter José Cabrera. A one-out walk by Robert Brooks and an infield single by Estiven Machado who beat out a tapper back to the mound that Cabrera could not find the handle on for a two-out single. Dasan Brown followed with a double to left to score Brooks but Machado was nailed at the plate on a 7-6-2 relay to end the inning.
The Hops responded against C’s starter Ryan Jennings in the top of the third. A pair of singles to center and left by Juan Corniel and Wyatt Crenshaw began the inning. Cole Roberts‘ grounder to short was thrown away by Estiven Machado as he tried to start a double play at second base. Instead, Corniel came home to tie the game at 1-1. Jean Walters hit a shallow fly to center and Crenshaw decided to test the arm of Brown. That was a bad idea as the pride of Oakville, Ontario made a perfect throw to the plate to cut down Crenshaw for an 8-2 double play. Hillsboro would still break the tie when Manny Peña would deliver a base hit to left to score Roberts—who had went to third on the fly ball to center by Walters.
The Hops would pad their lead in the top of the fourth. Jennings struck out Junior Franco and fanned Corniel but a walk and stolen base by Oyen, Alberta’s Gavin Logan took place between those bases on balls. Jennings’ day would end when Crenshaw singled to right on a 1-2 pitch to drive in Logan. Rafael Ohashi entered the game and was rudely greeted by a run-scoring single to left by Robets to cash in Crenshaw with to lift the Hops to a 4-1 lead.
The C’s loaded the bases against Cabrera in the home half of the fourth when Brooks walked, Jean Arnaez was grazed by a pitch on the left forearm and Machado laid down a bunt single to third. Brown would hit into a 6-4-3 double play to score Brooks. With Machado at third, Jace Bohrofen struck out to end the rally.
Junior Cerda came out of the Hillsboro bullpen for the fifth inning and it looked like it was going to be a quick inning after striking out the first two men that he faced. Je’Von Ward kept the inning alive by hustling down the line to beat an infield single at third. Nick Goodwin was hit in the back by a pitch and Brooks drew another free pass to load the bases. Arnaez came through with a base hit up the gut to drive in Ward and Goodwin home. Machado walked to load the bases and forced Cerda’s exit from the game. Despite Brown hitting two balls hard off Alec Baker, the C’s could not push the go-ahead run across. Brown poked a ball just foul down the right field line before lining out to left to end the rally.
Monty’s Mounties would take charge in the eighth against Hops lefty Carlos Meza. Brown blazed down the first base line after Meza could not handle a comebacker to the mound. Brown stole second base due to pitcher’s indifference as Meza did not pay any attention to him whatsoever. Bohrofen then singled to right to score Brown who went through the stop sign at third on a headfirst slide at home with the go-ahead run. After getting to second on an errant throw from right field, Bohrofen scampered home when Peyton Williams hit a hustle double to left. Williams rumbled around to score on a Ward base knock up the middle. Peñiel Otaño would get the final out of the inning.
Josh Mollerus shut the door with a 1-2-3 ninth for the save. The win went to Johnathan Lavallee.
C-Notes
Jennings made quick work of the Hops in the first inning with a called strikeout of Peña and covered the first base bag to complete an inning-ending 4-1 putout to retire Conticello. That was followed by another perfect stanza as Jennings struck out Franco swinging and Logan looking for the final two outs.
Ohashi gave up a leadoff double that went over the head of Hornung in left field to start the top of the fifth. That was it for the Hops as Ohashi would eventually strike out Kevin Sim before getting Franco to fly out to center which almost resulted in a collision between Brown and Hornung in left-center.
Ohashi faced just three batters in the sixth. Crenshaw singled to right with two outs but Ward threw out his right field counterpart on a 9-6 play. It almost appeared Ward was daring Crenshaw to go as he did not get to the ball right away but Ward would unleash a bullet to get Crenshaw to end the inning.
Johnathan Lavallee walked Roberts and gave up a Walters base hit to right to begin the seventh. Peña bunted to the mound to move the runners over but Lavallee got out of it by striking out Conticello and getting Sim to ground out to third.
In the eighth, Lavallee surrendered a Logan single to left that was just out of the reach of Goodwin at third base into left field but that was the only Hillsboro baserunner of the inning.
Mollerus struck out Roberts to begin a perfect ninth. The game ended on Peña fly ball to center. Marcos De La Rosa entered the game in right field for Vancouver in the ninth, moving Ward over to left and that led to Hornung leaving the game after making his first outfield start as a pro. Hornung did play some outfield at Skidmore College.
Brown had the first hit of the game off Cabrera with a single to right but was thrown out by Crenshaw at second base on a 9-6 play. Bohrofen walked and Williams singled to right to put runners on the corners but Jackson Hornung’s fly ball to right was too shallow for Bohrofen to go home and Ward grounded out to first.
Vancouver had another rally that came up short in the bottom of the third. Williams snuck a ball under the glove of Peña at second base for a base hit to center field with one out. Hornung doubled Williams over to third with a double to right field just out of the reach of a diving Crenshaw. The runners were stranded when Ward grounded out to second with the infield in and Goodwin struck out.
Hornung walked with two away in the home half of the sixth but Baker would not give up anything else as he would spin a perfect seventh.
Vancouver has a chance for a six-game sweep on Sunday afternoon. Rafael Sánchez will release the first pitch at 1:05 p.m. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV with Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges on the call.
All the best to 2014 C’s lefty Tim Mayza as he was designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday. The Allentown, Pennsylvania native had been with the Blue Jays since the 2017 season and was able to recover from Tommy John surgery after an outing against the New York Yankees at the Dome in 2019. As the Billy Joel song about Mayza’s hometown goes, you can’t keep a good man down and hopefully Mayza will resurface with another big league club.
Radar Gun Rundown
Ryan Jennings was at 82-97 miles per hour and struck out five Hops at 95, 96, 94, 95 and 86. Rafael Ohashi had a strikeout at 84 and was up to 93. Johnathan Lavallee had a strikeout at 96 and Grayson Thurman struck a batter at 84 and was up to 94,
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