The Vancouver Canadians fell to the Eugene Emeralds 5-1 at P.K. Park on Thursday.
The Emeralds scored first in their first at-bat against Connor O’Halloran. A base hit to left by Wade Meckler came on O’Halloran’s first pitch of the night. Jonah Cox hit into a 6-4 fielder’s choice to force out Meckler. Cox stole second base and went to third on an O’Halloran throwing error. Bryce Eldridge walked and Onil Perez was hit in the right elbow to load the bases. Another walk to Quinn McDaniel scored Cox with the Emeralds first run. Diego Velasquez then hit into a 5-3 double play to end the inning.
The Canadians evened things up in the top of the second against Emeralds reliever Trent Harris. Robert Brooks singled to left and got into scoring position on a Perez passed ball. Brooks made it to third on a fly out to right by Dylan Rock and tagged up to score from third on a Je’Von Ward sacrifice fly to left.
Eugene took the lead right back in the bottom of the second. Cole Foster struck out but reached first base on a wild pitch and Alexander Suarez made O’Halloran pay with a two-run home run to left-center. The one-out rally continued as Eugene would load the bases on walks to Meckler and Eldridge with Cox getting plunked in between. Perez hit a ground ball that took Nick Goodwin to the third base bag for the force out. Goodwin tried to complete a 5-3 double play but his throw to first missed the mark as Meckler crossed the plate. Jackson Hornung got to the ball and was trotting back to the first base bag when Cox decided to make a mad dash for home. Hornung got the throw to the dish where Brooks made the tag on Cox who made a headfirst slide.
The Emeralds wrapped up the scoring in the seventh against Naswell Paulino. After Paulino induced a 4-6-3 double play from Perez to nullify an Eldrige plunking, McDaniel doubled to left and scored on a Velasquez single to left.
C-Notes
It was a promising beginning for the Canadians when Dasan Brown doubled to center field on the first pitch of the game from Jack Choate. Brown would make it to third on a Choate wild pitch with one out. Two pitches later, Choate exited the game due to injury. Harris came in to induce a ground ball from Peyton Williams to Em’s third baseman Justin Wishkoski who threw to Perez to get Brown at home. Harris then struck out Hornung to end the inning.
Brown had a one-out knock to center off Julio Rodriguez but the Em’s faced the minimum three batters in innings three through seven.
Tommy Kane walked Ward with one out in the eighth and Estiven Machado singled to left with two away to put runners on the corners but Kane would retire the last four men he faced for the three-inning save.
O’Halloran’s best inning was the third when he retired the side in order by striking out McDaniel and Wishkoski for outs one and three. The former Michigan Wolverine recorded another two strikeouts in the fourth by fanning Cole Foster and Meckler. That helped strand Suarez at second after he reached on a throwing error at third by Goodwin and swiped second.
Rafael Ohashi stranded a Perez walk for O’Halloran and a Velasquez walk in scoring position by getting Wishowski to ground out to third in the fifth inning. Ohashi stranded a Meckler two-out ground-rule double to center by striking out Cox.
Grayson Thurman gave up a leadoff single to left by Wishkoski but that was it as he struck out Suarez amid three straight Emeralds retired.
Juaron Watts-Brown will take the ball for Vancouver on Friday. The game is set for 6:35 p.m. at P.K. Park. Chris Georges will call the action on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game will also be on MiLB.TV.
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