The Vancouver Canadians snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a 7-6 victory over the Spokane Indians at Nat Bailey Stadium on Sunday.

The first run did not come until the top of the fourth as Spokane solved C’s starter Carson Pierce. A leadoff single to center and a steal of second by Dyan Jorge moved to third on a Kyle Karros infield single to third. A sacrifice fly to center by Jake Snider scored Jorge with the game’s first run. 

Vancouver was finally able to get to Spokane starter Connor Staine in the bottom of the sixth. Staine drilled Dasan Brown for the second time in the game and the Oakville, Ontario native promptly stole second base and went to third on a throwing error by Spokane catcher Bryant Betancourt. Jace Bohrofen walked and Peyton Williams singled to right to drive in Brown with the tying run. A Nick Goodwin double to center and a Je’Von Ward sacrifice fly to the warning track in center on an 0-2 pitch scored Bohrofen and Willaims respectively to make it a 3-1 game. Robert Brooks fell behind in the count at 0-2 before launching a ball into the seating area of the C’s left field bullpen to put Vancouver up 5-1. The ball was caught by lefthander Naswell Paulino who used his cap to catch it.

Spokane would fight back in the eighth. A leadoff walk and stolen base by Hill scored when EJ Andrews Jr. cleared the left field porch off Conor Larkin to cut the Vancouver lead in half. Jorge singled to right to chase Larkin from the game. Grayson Thurman replaced Larkin and surrendered a two-out single to right by Snider before Juan Guerrero produced a seeing-eye single up the middle to score Jorge and Snider to tie the game at 5-5. Betancourt knocked Thurman out of the game with a ground-rule double to right to score Guerrero with the sixth Spokane run. Johnathan Lavallee got the final out of the third by getting José Cordova to fly out to right.

The C’s looked to storm back in the bottom of the eighth when Ward walked and Brooks doubled down the left field line with one out off Spokane reliever Sergio Sánchez. Marcos De La Rosa came in to pinch-run for Brooks but Welinton Herrera struck out Jean Arnaez and pinch-hitter Jackson Hornung to end the rally.

Spokane tried to pad their lead in the ninth when Hill led off again with a walk and a swipe of second. Cole Carrigg beat out a grounder to short for an infield single but Lavallee induced a 5-4-3 double play started by De La Rosa off the bat of Jorge to keep the deficit at one.

Brown drew a leadoff walk on four pitches to begin the bottom of the ninth off Herrera. Brown stole second but the flamethrowing lefty was one strike away from ending the game before walking Goodwin with two outs. Herrera got ahead of Brennan Orf with a 1-2 count but Orf was able to double down the left field to score Brown with the tying. Goodwin followed Brown with a headfirst slide at home and was safe as Betancourt could not handle the ball at the plate. that set off the celebration as the team mobbed Orf for his game-tying and game-winning RBI double.

C-Notes

C's Notes

Pierce retired the first seven Spokane hitters before Hill walked with one out in the third. The son of former Blue Jay Glenallen Hill stole the first of three bases on the day but Pierce struck out Andrews and got Carrigg on a fly ball to left.

Kai Peterson pitched two perfect stanzas in the fifth and sixth, striking out Hill in the fifth inning.

Larkin walked Snider to start the seventh before retiring the next three men he faced.

Bohrofen was the first Canadian to reach base with a one-out walk in the first. He also drew a base on balls in the third inning after Brown was drilled by a Staine pitch with two outs. A passed ball by Betancourt moved the runners up 90 feet but Staine struck out Williams.

Estiven Machado got on base with a two-out walk in the fifth inning but he was thrown out trying to steal second on a 2-4 caught stealing.

The Canadians tried to build on their lead in the seventh when Machado led off with a walk, Bohrofen singled to right with one out and Goodwin loaded the bases with a two-out walk against Caleb Franzen. Machado tried to score on a wild pitch but was cut down at the plate as Betancourt got the ball to Franzen covering the dish. 

The C’s play six games in Hillsboro starting on Tuesday. All games start at 7:05 p.m. from Hillsboro Ballpark from Tuesday to Saturday. The Sunday finale is at 1:05 p.m. All games are on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.

Radar Gun Rundown

Carson Pierce was at 78 miles per hour with strikeouts at 92 and 82. Kai Peterson had a punchout at 92 and was up to 94. Conor Larkin was at 82-94, Grayson Thurman was at 83-90 and Johnathan Lavallee was at 84-94.

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C’s Plus Baseball strives to deliver plus coverage of the C’s through photos, observations and interviews of the players striving to make it to the major leagues. If you like what you see here, please spread the word about CsPlusBaseball.ca through your favourite social media platform. This blog began just before the C's championship season in 2017 and the goal is to deliver awesome content about Canada’s only affiliated professional minor league baseball club. Thanks a million for being here!

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