The Vancouver Canadians let one get away as they fell 7-6 to the Everett AquaSox at Nat Bailey Stadium on Wednesday.
Everett started the game with two-out back-to-back solo home runs from Jared Sundstrom and Caleb Cali to left field off Vancouver starter Juaron Watts-Brown. Sundstrom’s blast cleared the left field porch and Cali kept his fair down the left field line.
The Canadians would tie it up against AquaSox starter Shaddon Peavyhouse in the third. Jacob Sharp hit a ball that deflected off Axel Sánchez at short for a base hit to left field. Alex Stone worked a 10-pitch at-bat before grounding out to third. Sharp’s leadoff single was not wasted as Jace Bohrofen blasted one over the wall in center field for a two-out, two-run homer.
The C’s grabbed their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Sharp led off with a walk, moved to third on Stone’s base hit to center and Bryce Arnold was hit in the left arm by Peavyhouse to load the bases. Jackson Hornung would drive in all three runners with a double to left field.
That was the end of the night for Peavyhouse as lefthander Holden Laws was summoned from the Frogs bullpen. Hornung got to third on a fly ball to right by Peyton Williams but was stranded when Cutter Coffey grounded out to third.
The AquaSox got a run back in the seventh against Chay Yeager. A double to center field by Gabriel Moncada and a single to right by Colin Davis put runners on the corners. A Colt Emerson groundout to short brought in Moncada. Yeager walked Sundstrom with two outs but sandwiched that with a strikeout of Michael Arroyo and a Cali pop-out to short.
Things took a turn for the worse for C’s reliever Bo Bonds in the eighth inning. He plunked Bill Knight with a pitch and walked Connor Charping. Bonds got Sánchez to strike out swinging and should have struck out Moncada looking on a 1-2 pitch according to TrackMan. However, umpire Dylan Hulsey blew the call.
Instead, Moncada smoked one over the right field fence two pitches later for a three-run homer to put Everett up 6-5.
With a 2-2 count on Davis, Bonds exited the game due to injury. Alex Amalfi took over and struck out Davis looking. He also fanned Emerson but a wild pitch allowed Emerson to reach first and later steal second. Amalfi ended the ralloy by getting Arroyo to fly out to center.
Everett added to their lead in the ninth against Amalfi.with a two-out rally. Knight got on base with an infield single to second that Arnold made a diving stop on but the Grimsby, Ontario native could not make the throw. Knight stole second and scored on a Charping single up the middle.
The Canadians staged a rally in the ninth inning. Jason Ruffcorn got Arnold to foul out to third on a 3-2 pitch before Bohrofen got his fourth hit of the night with a single to right. PInch-hitter Brennan Orf—replacing Marcos De La Rosa—lifted a fly ball to center that was dropped by Knight. The C’s were poised to have runners at second and third with one out but Bohrofen fell down rounding third and he was tagged out on an 8-4-5-2-4 play. WIlliams broke his bat but the bat died a hero as the ball fell into right field for a single to score Orf from second. Ruffcorn would strike out Coffey to seal the deal for Everett.
C-Notes
The bulllpen collapse flushed the best start turned in by Juaron Watts-Brown in a Vancouver uniform. He walked just one batter and struck out seven over six innings of two-run ball.
After starting the game with a strikeout of Emerson, Watts-Brown fanned Sánchez for a 1-2-3 second inning and ended a perfect third by getting Arroyo looking at strike three. The highlight of the third was turned in by Je’Von Ward who ran down a foul ball from Davis and held onto the ball despite going up and over the short wall along right field and taking a nasty tumble. Amazingly, Ward was able to stay in the game but I am sure he will be feeling the effects of that catch.
Cali had an infield single to third in the fourth inning but Watts-Brown struck out Knight to eventually get out of the frame.
The fifth inning saw Watts-Brown get into a bases-loaded situation. Gabriel Moncada singled to right field with one out and Emerson walked with two outs after Davis struck out. Arroyo singled to center to fill the pillows before Watts-Brown got Sundstrom to ground out to third.
JWB was good for one more inning as he fanned Cali to start the sixth and eventually stranded a one-out Knight single to left.
Bohrofen led off the bottom of the first with a single to left field but Hornung hit into a 5-4-3 double play to neuter that rally.
Ward had a single to left with two outs in the fourth but Vancouver did not get another runner on until the seventh against Tyler Cleveland. Bohrofen singled to right field with two outs and Hornung walked with one out. De La Rosa pinch-ran for Hornung but he and Bohrofen were stranded when Williams struck out.
Vancouver put two more runners on base against Jimmy Kingsbury in the eighth. Ward walked with one out and Sharp was hit by a pitch with two outs but Stone hit a tapper back to the mound that Cleveland managed to gather in to make the throw to first for the third out.
Connor O’Halloran will take his turn in the Vancouver rotation for a 7:05 p.m. start at Nat Bailey Stadium on Thursday. The game is on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV
Radar Gun Rundown
Juaron Watts-Brown was at 82-95 miles per hour with strikeouts at 84, 87, 85, 95 and 85.
Chay Yeager struck out a batter at 89 and was 87-97. Bo Bonds was at 82-92 and Alex Amalfi had strikeouts at 79, 94 and 93 and was up to 95.
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