The Vancouver Canadians snuck past the Eugene Emeralds 3-2 at P.K. Park on Saturday.
The Emeralds were able to get to C’s starter Rafael Sánchez in the fourth. Jonah Cox led off with a walk and stole second base on a headfirst slide. The throw from Jommer Hernández went into left-center field and Cox got up and never broke stride as he scored all the way from first. Onil Perez singled to left and Matt Higgins doubled to right to put two runners in scoring position. Quinn McDaniel struck out but a wild pitch by Sánchez allowed Perez to score Eugene’s second run. Sánchez struck out the side by fanning Cole Foster and Tanner O’Tremba to strand Higgins at third.
The Canadians fought back in the fifth as Je’Von Ward drew a leadoff walk against Emeralds starter Manuel Mercedes, who exited the game with one out. Matt Mikulski gave up a ground-rule double right by Peyton Williams to get Ward over to third. Williams and Ward would score when Robert Brooks homered to left-center field with two outs to put the C’s ahead.
C-Notes
Sánchez struck out the first batter he faced by getting Wade Meckler looking at strike three. His batterymate Jommer Hernández erased a Cox infield single to short and a Perez base hit to left field by throwing them out for a 2-4 and 2-6 caught stealings to end the first.
A leadoff walk to Higgins in the top of the second was taken care of by Sánchez by striking out the side as McDaniel, Foster and O’Tremba all went down swinging.
It was a 1-2-3 top of the third for Sánchez which began and ended with strikeouts of Thomas Gavello and Meckler respectively. Mecker singled to right with two outs in the fifth but Sánchez ended his outing by retiring Cox on a groundout to second.
The Emeralds got their first two men on against Chay Yeager in the bottom of the sixth when Perez walked and Higgins singled to center. Yeager rallied by striking out McDaniel and getting Foster to hit in a 4-6-3 double play.
The Em’s put two more runners on in the seventh against Grayson Thurman. After Gavello struck out swinging, Wishkoski singled to center and Meckler had a base hit to right with two outs before Cox grounded out to short.
Thurman wrapped up a perfect eighth inning by gettign Higgins and McDaniel looking and Johnathan Lavallee closed it out by striking out the side with Foster and O’Tremba going down swinging and Gavello looking.
The C’s wasted a number of scoring opportunities in this one.
They had the bases loaded against Mercedes in the top of the second inning when Brooks looped a one-out ingle to right that Higgins nearly hauled in from first base as the ball went off his glove. Dylan Rock was drilled by a pitch in the left leg and Jommer Hernández took a pitch off his right arm with two away.
A Ward leadoff walk and a Williams one-out double to right in the third and an Estiven Machado infield single to second and a Hernández base knock to right in the fourth were also stranded.
In the sixth, another bases-loaded opportunity presented itself when Machado led off with a single to center field and De La Rosa walked and Ward singled to center with one out,
All of those rallies ended on strikeouts with the third and sixth inning ending on consecutive Ks.
Brooks reached on an error at short by Foster with one out in the seventh against Cody Tucker. A wild pitch moved Brooks to second but inning ended with another punchout.
De La Rosa doubled to right with one out in the eighth after O’Tremba could not hang onto the ball after making what would have been a spectacular diving catch. De La Rosa was hoping to catch Tucker napping but he was thrown out trying to steal third by Tucker for a 1-5 putout.
Jace Bohrofen was the last Vancouver baserunner when he was clipped in the right foot by Cameron Cotter to start the ninth.
The C’s will try to get a series victory as Pat Gallagher gets the ball for Vancouver. Game time is 5:05 p.m. as Chris Georges delivers the call from P.K. Park on CanadiansBaseball.com. The game is also on MiLB.TV.
C-Tweets
Discover more from C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
C's Plus Baseball | A Vancouver Canadians Blog 