The Vancouver Canadians pulled out a 4-3 victory against the Everett AquaSox at Nat Bailey Stadium on Friday.
The Canadians found themselves down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Jace Bohrofen introduced himself to AquaSox reliever Nick Davila with a ground rule double to right field into the Everett bullpen to lead off the inning.
One out later, Brennan Orf tied the game with a two-run home run to right that left his bat at 102 miles per hour and travelled 377 feet. A tip of the cap to C’s Technology Assistant Cristian Cordova for that information.
In the ninth, Jean Arnaez singled to left off Davila to begin the frame. A wild pitch moved pinch-runner Glenn Santiago to second base. Davila battled back by striking out Jaden Rudd and Jommer Hernández but his first pitch to Ryan McCarty was lined down the left field line for a double to score Santiago with the winning run.
Everett began the scoring in the top of the fourth by grinding out long at-bats against Vancouver starter Chris McElvain. He struck out Bill Knight after a leadoff single to left by R.J. Schreck but a pair of walks by Axel Sánchez and Gabriel Moncada loaded the bases. Colin Davis would single to center to score Schreck and Sánchez to give Everett a 2-0 lead. Freuddy Batista popped out to second with the infield fly rule being called for the second out. That was McElvain’s 34th pitch of the inning and he was relieved by Johnathan Lavallee. A walk to Brock Rodden reloaded the bases but Lavallee struck out Josh Hood swinging for the third out on the inning’s 47th pitch.
The long top of the fourth resulted in Everett starter Ty Cummings throwing some warmup pitches in the bullpen to stay loose. That lengthy frame wreaked havoc on Cummings when he walked Orf on four straight pitches. Dylan Rock would line a double to left to put runners at second and third. Estiven Machado produced a sacrifice fly to left to drive in Orf with Vancouver’s first run. Rock would be stranded at third when Arnaez grounded to short and Rudd was thrown out by Cummings after trying to bunt his way on.
The AquaSox restored their two-run lead when Jared Sundstrom belted Lavallee’s second pitch of the fifth inning into the left field porch.
C-Notes
Rodden had the first hit of the game when he singled to right on an 0-2 pitch from McElvain to start the game but that was all the AquaSox in the first inning.
Everett put two men on in the second on a one-out Axel Sánchez single to right and a two-out Colin Davis walk but Jommer Hernández fired the ball to second to Arnaez to pick off Sánchez on a 2-4 play to end the inning.
Rodden got aboard with a one-out walk in the third but McElvain sandwiched that by ringing up Batista and Hood to help him get out of the frame.
Kevin Miranda entered the game in the top of the sixth for the C’s but he was done after just two pitches as he left the game due to injury. Alex Amalfi was pressed into service and he struck out Moncada swinging after inheriting a 1-1 count from Miranda. Amalfi overcame a dropped foul ball in first base territory by Orf as he retired the side in order.
Amalfi struck out Hood to retire the first two hitters in order in the seventh. He worked around a pair of walks to Sundstrom and Schreck by getting Knight to pop out to short. Another two-out walk was issued by Amalfi in the eighth when Davis worked the count to ball four but Batista struck out swinging for out number three.
Justin Kelly was brought in for the top of the ninth and he was the winning pitcher. A Hood one-out single to right and a Schreck two-out walk went for naught when Kelly got Knight hit a ground ball to Wehler and he raced to the third base bag to record the unassisted putout.
The first six Vancouver batters were set down in order. Orf came the closest to getting a hit but he was robbed by Sundstrom who made a sliding catch at the warning track in right field to start the second.
The first Vancouver base hit belonged to Rudd who punched a single to right that Moncada could not knock down at first base. After the one-out single, Rudd stole second base and the bases were eventually loaded on a Hernández walk and a McCarty single that Sundstrom could not get to in time. Cummings would strike out Bohrofen and get Jeff Wehler to fly out to center.
The C’s tried to even the score in the fifth. Hernández was retired on a deep drive to the warning track in right field before McCarty singled to center and advanced to second on a Knight fielding error. Cummings would get Bohrofen to fly out to left and Wehler to ground out to third to strand McCarty 180 feet away.
In the sixth, Orf singled to center before Rock drove one deep to left-center that Schreck could not come down with. Rock was held to a long single because Orf remained at second. A Machado 3-6 fielder’s choice advanced Orf to third but Arnaez fouled out to first and Machado was thrown out stealing on a 2-6 play by Batista to end the rally.
The C’s were set down in order by lefty Blake Townsend who worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning.
A note of great interest to C’s television producer Joseph Anctil during Friday’s broadcast was the fact both teams had a catcher wearing number 19 batting ninth and both hailing from the Dominican Republic. Vancouver catcher Jommer Hernández is from Puerto Plata and Everett backstop Freuddy Batista is from Santo Domingo.
The C’s also started five players whose first name begins with ‘J’ – Jace Bohrofen, Jeff Wehler, Jean Arnaez, Jaden Rudd and Jommer Hernández. The more you know!
Vancouver is back to .500 at 13-13 and will try to get over the hump on Saturday afternoon. Rafael Sánchez is the scheduled starter for the C’s in a 1:05 p.m. start. Tyler Zickel and Chris Georges will have the play-by-play on CanadiansBaseball.com and MiLB.TV.
According to the Canadians press notes, only two of the four games that were rained out at Nat Bailey Stadium against Spokane last month will be made up. A doubleheader will be played at Spokane on May 18 and another doubleheader will be at The Nat on June 14.
Radar Gun Rundown
Chris McElvain was at 78-95 miles per hour with strikeouts of 82, 86 and 89. Johnathan Lavallee had a strikeout at 92 and was up to 95. Kevin Miranda had a pitch at 90 before his exit. Alex Amalfi had Ks of 87, 86 and 84 and was in the 73-94 range. Justin Kelly checked in at 82-94.
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