Eighth Is Great: Late Rally Wins It For C's

VANCOUVER, BC – A two-run rally in the bottom of the eighth helped the Canadians secure a series split with the Tri-City Dust Devils [Angels] Thursday night thanks to a 3-2 win at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium.

After the Dust Devils struck for their only two runs of the night in the top of the eighth to take a 2-1 lead, the C’s – who were in danger of losing a game in the last two innings when leading after seven for just the second time this year – responded with two runs of their own to go in front for good. The stanza began with a hit by pitch that put Dasan Brown on base, which proved crucial to the comeback. His fleet feet took him from first to third on a Garrett Spain single to right field in the next at-bat then brought him home to tie the game on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Peyton Williams muscled a single over the shortstop to score Spain from second and make it 3-2 Vancouver.

Naswell Paulino (W, 5-4) – who inherited two runners on with two outs in the eighth and got the only man he faced to end the inning and keep it a one-run deficit – worked around a two-out error in the ninth to secure the win.

Kekai Rios got the scoring started with a first pitch solo homer in the third, the lone run Dust Devils starter Michael Darrell-Hicks allowed over seven strong innings. Canadians starter Devereaux Harrison logged his team-best fifth quality start of the year with six scoreless that featured four hits, one walk and seven strikeouts. He was in line for the victory until Tri-City scored their two runs in the eighth.

With the win, the C’s are now 41-1 when leading after seven innings and 40-0 when taking a lead into the ninth. They’ve improved to 65-39 on the year, the best record in all of High-A.

Seven of nine starters reached base and five had a hit. Spain, Williams and Rios finished with two hits apiece.

Vancouver will go for the series win Friday afternoon as part of a Fortis BC ‘Nooner at The Nat. Hunter Gregory gets the nod for the C’s opposite Tri-City’s Chase Chaney, with first pitch set for 1:05 p.m. Coverage is available on CanadiansBaseball.com, Bally Live, the MiLB First Pitch app and the Sportsnet Radio Network.