Canadians rally in seventh to beat Dust Devils

RIght-hander Willy Gaston tossed three scoreless innings in relief for the Vancouver Canadians on Friday and was the winning pitcher. Photo: Vancouver Canadians/Twitter

August 20, 2021

Official Vancouver Canadians News Release

HILLSBORO, OR – The Vancouver Canadians strung together five consecutive hits in the seventh inning to beat the Tri-City Dust Devils 5-2 Friday night at Ron Tonkin Field.

Tied 2-2 after six, Phil Clarke started the rally with a bloop double down the left field line. After an Eric Rivera infield single and a passed ball put runners at second and third, Zac Cook brought in the eventual winning run with a single into right field. Luis De Los Santos and Tanner Morris followed with back-to-back base hits to score two more runs and make it 5-2.

Willy Gaston (W, 1-3) turned in one of his finest outings of the year. The Havana, Cuba native logged three scoreless innings to keep Tri-City off the scoreboard and set up a comeback win for the Canadians. He handed the ball to newcomer Jol Concepcion (S, 1) for a scoreless ninth to secure the win.

The C’s started the scoring with a run on two hits, a walk and a passed ball in the fourth before the Dust Devils’ Griffin Mazur slugged his first professional home run in the fifth to go ahead 2-1. That lead lasted until the sixth, when Spencer Horwitz – who extended his hitting streak to ten consecutive games with a double earlier – bashed his fifth homer of the season to tie things up at two runs apiece.

CJ Van Eyk got the start and went five innings in which he allowed two runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

Six of nine starters had a hit. Morris extended his hitting streak to a team-high 11 games while Horwitz improved his August batting average to .410 with his two hits.

Adam Kloffenstein gets the start on Saturday night as Vancouver looks to make it three straight wins. Glenn Albanese goes for Tri-City. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.