Suddenly Soaring C's Stick It To Hops Again

Even Joe Elbis could not halt the Vancouver Canadians' surging start to the second half.

Hillsboro's ace righty saw a streak of six consecutive winning decisions end Friday as the Canadians (7-0 second half, 37-33 overall) defeated the Hops 5-2 to run their second-half winning streak to seven games. A win Saturday would match a franchise record, last accomplished when the team played a season at Hillsboro Ballpark due to continuing COVID-19 restrictions north of the border.

Hillsboro (1-6, 36-36) gave Elbis (6-2) a brief lead after stringing together three consecutive singles with two outs in the fifth inning off reliever Alex Amalfi. But Vancouver loaded the bases with none out in the sixth, plating two to regain the lead. Amalfi (1-1), Aaron Munson and Grayson Thurman held Hillsboro hitless the rest of the way as the C's added on insurance runs in the seventh and eighth against the Hops' pen.

it was a big day for Vancouver's Division III contingent. Jackson Hornung (Skidmore College) homered off Elbis in the first, adding a double and a single. Amalfi (U. Massachusetts Boston) picked up his first High-A victory and Thurman (Lynchburg College) pitched two perfect innings with two strikeouts. NCAA Division III schools are academics-focused and do not offer athletic scholarships. It is exceedingly rare for an affiliated professional team to have three such players on the same roster.

Chris Pierce made a spot start on the mound for Vancouver and retired the side in order in each of the first three innings with four strikeouts. Jean Walters greeted Pierce with a leadoff home run in the fourth, his first as a Hop and third as a pro. Pierce left the game after allowing a two-out single to Jack Hurley. Amalfi came on and threw one pitch to Christian Cerda, with Hurley thrown out trying to steal second by Robert Brooks, a standout at Division II Columbus State University in Georgia signed this month out of the Atlantic League.

After retiring the first two batters in the fifth, Amalfi surrendered back-to-back-to-back singles to Manny Pena, Cole Roberts and Juan Corniel as the Hops grabbed a 2-1 lead.

After giving up two hits in the first inning, only a Jackson Hornung double disrupted Elbis until the sixth as the 21-year-old righty retired 13 of 14. Dasan Brown, just reactivated from the injured list, led off the sixth with a walk. Je'von Ward followed with a single to right Hornung blooped a single to left center to load the bases with none out. Elbis plunked Jeff Wehler with an 0-1 pitch to force in Brown with the tying run, but limited the damage to two runs, with Brooks driving in the second with a sacrifice fly to left.

Leading 3-2, the C's again loaded the bases with none out in the seventh on a Kevin Sim error, another hit batter and another walk to Brown. Eli Saul replaced Elbis after Marcos De La Rosa got hit by a pitch trying to bunt and allowed a sacrifice fly to Je'Von Ward, but nothing more. The C's parlayed a third hit batter, single and walk into another run off Alfred Morillo in the eighth, with Brooks sprinting home on a wild pitch after taking one for the team to open the inning.

Hillsboro had only one more baserunner after the three fifth-inning singles as Munson (Division II Angelo State U.) pitched a scoreless seventh in his High-A debut and Thurman mowed the Hops down over the final two frames.

Already six games off the league lead after seven second-half contests, the Hops will try to turn things around over a pair of weekend afternoon games. Saturday and Sunday's contests are at 1:05 p.m. with pregame radio coverage beginning at 12:50 p.m. on Rip City Radio 620 AM.