The Vancouver Canadians won a back-and-forth affair against the Eugene Emeralds with a 6-5 victory at Nat Bailey Stadium on Saturday.
Je’Von Ward led off the bottom of the first with a double to right off Emeralds starter Mikell Manzano and advanced to third on an Onil Perez passed ball. Jackson Hornung singled up the middle through a drawn-in infield to drive in Ward.
Vancouver put up two more runs in the fifth against lefty Matt Mikulski. Marcos De La Rosa started the frame with a double to center field and Ward reached on a fielding error by Thomas Gavello at short. Hornung lifted a sacrifice fly to score De La Rosa before a two-out double by Jay Harry to center scored Ward to make it 3-0 C’s.
The Emeralds could not figure out C’s swould go on a rampage in the seventh. A Charlie Szykowny single to right and a Perez double to left started the trouble for Irv Carter. A wild pitch scored Syzkowny and a Scott Bandura infield single to third brought in Perez to cut the Canadians lead to 3-2. Allan Cerda then belted a home run for the second straight game to drive in Bandura to put Eugene up 4-3. Jack Payton then pounded a ball off the facing of the left field porch to put the Em’s up by two. Alex Amalfi would give up the Em’s sixth straight hit on a double to right field by Gavello . Even though he uncorked a wild pitch to put Gavello at third. Amalfi struck out the side by getting Quinn McDaniel swinging, James Tibbs III looking and Sabin Ceballos swinging.
It came down to the bottom of the ninth when Alex Stone got the rally started for Vancouver with a single to center off Em’s reliever Daniel Blair. Bryce Arnold doubled to the left field corner to get Stone to third. De La Rosa was hit by a pitch on the leg to load the bases. A sac fly to left by Ward brought in Stone who just beat the throw to the plate and took a tumble after getting his foot on home plate just ahead of Perez’s tag. Blair struck out Hornung but Peyton Williams worked the count to 3-1 before singling to left to score Arnold and De La Rosa with the tying and winning runs to walk it off for Monty’s Mounties.
C-Notes
Rogers strung together six shutout innings which began with a three-hit frame by Eugene in the first. McDaniel singled to left field on the second pitch of the game and Tibbs singled up the middle on th enext pitch. Sabin Ceballos hit McDaniel with the ball as the latter tried to advance to third. Instead, Ceballas was credited with a hit but McDaniels was called out. Rogers would get out of the inning by getting Szykowny to line out to left and catching a pop up in front of home plate from Perez.
The second inning was a perfect one for Rogers who struck out Bandura and Cerda before Nick Goodwin made a nice play charging a ground ball to throw out Payton for the third out.
A Gavello single to right was all Rogers allowed in the third as he fanned McDaniel and Tibbs before retiring the side.
A Perez strikeout helped Rogers complete a clean fourth and two more strikeouts came in the fifth when Rogers whiffed Cerda and got Gavello looking to end the frame.
Rogers struck out McDaniel to open the sixth and wiped out a Tibbs infield single to third by getting Ceballos to hit into an inning-ending around the horn double play.
JJ Sánchez was able to extricate himself from a bases-loaded situation in the eighth. Goodwin made a leaping grab to snare a liner off the bat of Szykowny but a walk to Perez, a Bandura double to center and a Cerda hit by pitch filled the bags. Sánchez rallied from a 3-1 count to strike out Payton looking. After three straight balls to Gavello, Sánchez then threw three consecutive strikes with Gavello swinging and missing for the third out.
Bo Bonds pitched a shutout ninth that included a called strikeout of McDaniel and a two-out walk to Ceballos.
Nic Deschamps had a one-out single to center field in the second inning and Hornung nearly left the yard in the third but had to settle for a one-out wall-ball double to center. Both runners were stranded by Manzano.
Goodwin was the first batter to face Mikulski in the fourth and picked up a base hit that just fell in front of Bandura in center field. A wild pitch moved Goodwin into scoring position before being stranded.
Stone pinch-hit for Deschamps in the sixth but flew out to left. Arnold had a single to right but that was all the C’s would get. Stone would remain in the game as catcher.
The regular season finale for the C’s goes Sunday afternoon at Nat Bailey Stadium. Pat Gallagher gets the start for Vancouver. Rob Fai will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
The Canadians presented their year-end awards just after the game on Saturday. Outfielder Jace Bohrofen was named team MVP, Peyton Williams was named the Offensive Player of the Year, lefthander Kendry Rojas captured Top Pitcher honours and Oakville, Ontario native Dasan Brown was named the Fan Favourite. The Oakville Flash also recorded a message for C’s Diamond Vision, thanking the fans for their support and wishing the club the best of luck in the Northwest League Championship Series.
Radar Gun Rundown
Grant Rogers was at 82 miles per hour and registered strikeouts at 94, 84, 87, 93, 91, 90, 90 and 83. Irv Carter was at 86-90. Alex Amalfi was at 88 with strikeouts of 95, 94 and 95. JJ Sánchez was at 81 with strikeouts of 100 and 93 and also touched 97. Bo Bonds had a K of 93.
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