Enough Already! Eight Straight Vancouver Wins

With Canada Day weekend underway the Vancouver Canadians fans were already in a celebratory mood. A franchise record win streak to start the second half of the Northwest League baseball season certainly has done nothing to dampen the mood.

The C's broke a 4-4 tie with a three-run eighth inning and defeated the Hillsboro Hops 7-4 Saturday in front of just shy of 6,000 fans at Nat Bailey Stadium. It was Vancouver's eighth consecutive victory, which includes every game in the second-half schedule to this point. The eight wins matches a franchise best, last accomplished in 2021 when Vancouver played every home game at Hillsboro's field.

The Hops led 4-1 early and knocked Vancouver starting pitcher Ryan Jennings out of the game in the fourth inning. But a two-out, none on Vancouver rally in the fifth netted two runs to tie the game. The Canadians jumped on Hillsboro lefty Carlos Meza for three runs on four hits in their final turn at bat and slammed the door closed with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Former Oregon Duck Josh Mollerus set the Hops down in order in the ninth for his second save of the series. The Vancouver bullpen has gone five-for-five in save opportunities this week with four different pitchers recording saves. Meanwhile, the Hops thin bullpen has given up the lead twice in the late-going.

Down 1-0 in the third inning, Hillsboro tied the game after back-to-back singles and an Estiven Machado throwing error scored Juan Corniel from second. Poised for a big inning with a run across and second and third with none out, the Hops rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. Jean Walters lifted a pop-up to shallow left center. Wyatt Crenshaw bolted for home, looking back at the throw as he charged down the third base line. Brown threw a strike to the plate to complete a double play. The Hops did take the lead when Manny Pena followed with an RBI single that scored Cole Roberts. Gavin Conticello followed with a double, but Pena had to stop at third and the rally ended when Kevin Sim grounded out to short.

The Hops tacked on two more in the fourth inning. Gavin Logan walked with one out and broke for second on the next pitch. Corniel waved an missed at a high fastball, but catcher Robert Brooks' throw to second was off the mark. That aggressive bit of baserunning paid dividends as Crenshaw delivered an RBI single and took second on the throw home. Roberts greeted reliever Rafael Ohashi with another base hit to send Crenshaw home and the Hops led 4-1.

Jose Cabrera, who was freed from the restricted list after an 80-game suspension for use of a performance enhancing drug, made his first start since he threw five, no-hit innings at Vancouver last September. The righthander danced with danger in all four of his innings, but somehow limited the C's to just two runs on seven hits, three walks and a hit batter. The Canadians lost runners on the bases in each of the first two inning, which did not help their cause.

Vancouver loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth on a walk to Brooks, a hit batter and an Estiven Machado bunt single. But the Canadians had to settle for a single run as Brooks trotted home on Brown's double-play grounder and Cabrera fanned the struggling Jace Bohrofen to end the threat.

Junior Cerda took over on the mound in the fifth inning and everything looked rosy after back-to-back K's of the third and fourth hitters in the order, Peyton Williams and Jackson Hornung. But Je'von Ward beat out a slow roller to third, Cerda plunked Nick Goodwin with a 1-1 pitch and walked Brooks to load the bases. Light-hitting Jean Arnaez followed with a two RBI single to center field and Cerda was lifted from the game after walking Machado.

Alec Baker came out of the pen and put the world to rights, limiting the Canadians to a single base runner over 2 1/3 innings, but everything fell apart once Meza took the hill in the eighth.

Brown hit a tough grounder to first that glanced off Sim's glove, ruled an infield hit. The speedy center fielder then got such a good jump of the southpaw Meza that he nearly had second base occupied before his pitch hit Gavin Logan's glove. Bohrofen, hitting below .150 since May 22, then followed with his first hit of the series, a hot shot through the right side of the infield to send Brown home with the go-ahead run. An errant throw from right put Bohrofen at second, from where he scored on Williams' double down the left field line. The hulking first baseman travelled to the plate on a two-out single to center by Je'von Ward and Mollerus took care of the rest, setting the Hops down swiftly in the ninth for his fifth save in six tries.

Brown had a three-hit game, adding an RBI double in the second to score Brooks with Vancouver's first run. Machado tried to scored from first on the play but was gunned down on a one-hop relay throw from Corniel. Brown vied for a double in the first inning, but he was thrown out at second by Conticello, getting a rare start in center field. Williams also had three hits and Brooks walked three times, scoring two runs.