Hops' Smith reaches six times, scores five runs

On a night when Pavin Smith set lofty career highs and helped his club break a franchise record set two weeks ago, the No. 7 overall pick in June's Draft had another milestone on his mind. He had two chances to complete the cycle in the late innings Tuesday.
"My last two at-bats, I knew I needed a home run and I was trying to hit a home run," the Arizona infield prospect said. "Trying hard to hit a home run doesn't always work."
Pavin settled for a couple of singles, which made him 5-for-5 with five runs scored and three RBIs in the Class A Short Season Hops' 19-7 whooping of the Canadians in Vancouver.

Gameday box score
"It's definitely a good time -- any time you put a couple good swings on the ball, you're feeling good," he said. "I guess I was seeing the ball extra big."
Hillsboro broke a team record set during a July 5 romp against Salem-Keizer in which the 21-year-old first baseman logged his first four-hit game and teammate Yan Sanchez cycled. On Tuesday, Smith's fellow 2017 Draft picks Daulton Varsho, Drew Ellis and Tramayne Holmes each homered, Ellis and Holmes plated four apiece and Eudy Ramos scored four times.

"It's good any time you can break any kind of record. That's something special," said Smith, who's named after golfer Corey Pavin. "You go out every day and try to score as many runs as you can, and tonight was one of those nights when everything was just clicking."
After walking in the second inning, the left-handed hitter got the Hops on the board with an opposite-field two-run double in the fourth against Wilfri Aleton.
"He was a lefty throwing pretty hard. The infield was back with runners on second and third, so I was trying to put something in play, even on the ground, to get the run home," the University of Virginia product said. "I tried to get on top of one and I was able to shoot it up the line."
The next inning, he pulled a triple to right for another RBI against Aleton. At that point, he knew he was onto something.
"When you have two hits already, you've got nothing to lose," Pavin said. "You go up there not having to worry about stats or anything like that, because no matter what, you've had a good game. It takes all of the pressure off you." 
The native of Jupiter, Florida lined a single to right on a full count against another southpaw -- Miguel Burgos -- in the sixth, which put him within a roundtripper of Hillsboro's second cycle of the season. That fact wasn't lost on his teammates.
"They were like, 'If you hit a ground ball, we're going to fine you or something,'" Smith said.
In the eighth, he battled righty William Ouellette for six pitches, ultimately drilling the ball back up the middle. Ouellette reined it in, but not in time to throw Smith out.
"I tried [for the homer]," he said, "but once I had two strikes, I took off the home-run approach and just tried to put the ball in play." 
He was trying "extra hard" for a dinger the next inning, stepping in against Matt Morgan -- a catcher moonlighting as a reliever.
"I ended up with a top-spin single," Smith said. "He wasn't throwing hard, just trying to throw strikes with us so far ahead. He left one on the middle of the plate, but I... I did my best."
David Jacob homered and plated four runs for the Canadians.