May 23, 2021

Official Vancouver Canadians News Release

HILLSBORO, OR – A three-run ninth nearly spoiled an otherwise terrific Sunday afternoon, but the Vancouver Canadians held on to beat the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks) 5-4 and take the six-game series four games to two in the first edition of “The Battle for the ‘Boro.”

Leading 5-1 to start the final frame, Vancouver sent Will McAffer (North Vancover, B.C.) to the hill to record the last three outs. The right-hander only managed to retire one batter while putting a total of four men aboard via three walks and a hit by pitch before Parker Caracci (S, 3) was called upon with the score 5-2. Caracci got Hops legend Andy Yerzy (North York, Ont.) to pop out in foul ground before Leodany Perez scored two with a seeing-eye single up the middle, but another pop out ended the threat and the game as Hillsboro stranded the tying and winning runs on base.

Vancouver started the scoring in the fifth. Hops starter Drey Jameson (L, 0-2) cruised through four perfect frames before Spencer Horwitz led off with a single on the first pitch of the inning. He went to second on a wild pitch and scored when Luis De Los Santos singled to center. After a Sebastian Espino double put runners on second and third, Ronny Brito worked the count full and fouled off a couple of two-strike pitches before lifting a sacrifice fly to centre field that made it 2-0.

Right-hander Paxton Schultz (W, 2-0) turned in his best outing since joining the Blue Jays via trade in early May. Schultz, 23, earned a quality start in which he went six innings, allowed no runs on two hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out five.

Both teams scored a run in the seventh. The C’s put two men on base with consecutive singles to start the stanza before a dropped pop fly in shallow centre field allowed a run to score on the error. Hillsboro spoiled the shutout in the home half after a lead-off double, a two-out walk and an RBI single from Reece Hampton.

Two crucial runs would score in the top of the eighth. Cameron Eden doubled with one out, stole third on a bang-bang play at the bag that resulted in Hops backstop Nick Dalesandro being ejected from the game and came home on a wild pitch after the new catcher Yerzy couldn’t handle a breaking ball in the dirt. Horwitz – who had worked a walk after Eden’s double – later scored when De Los Santos’ second hit of the day one-hopped in and out of the centre fielder’s glove and allowed the runner to take an additional 90 feet to score what proved to be the winning run.

Justin Maese (H, 2) surrendered his first earned run of the season in the seventh but was otherwise solid in relief.

After an off day on Monday, Vancouver returns to action as the home team against the Everett AquaSox (Mariners) on Tuesday night at Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro.