One Run Puts C's One Win Away

VANCOUVER, BC – A wall-ball RBI single from Gabby Martinez and another sparkling shutout pitching performance from a quartet of arms led the Canadians to a 1-0 triumph in front of a raucous sellout crowd in Game 3 of the Northwest League Championship Series Friday night at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium. The win puts Vancouver on the precipice of their fifth title in franchise history with Game 4 set for tomorrow night.

After splitting the first two games in Everett by blanking each other, the C’s and Frogs picked up where they left off in the fourth inning on Wednesday by trading zeroes for the first five and a half innings. Canadians starter Hunter Gregory did his best Philippe Petit impression in the first two frames to keep the game scoreless early; he stranded runners at second and third with back-to-back Ks in the first then hit a batter and walked two with two outs in the second before striking out #2 Mariners prospect Harry Ford to keep the game tied. His final line: 4.0 IP, 1 H, 3 BB, HBP, 6 K.

Everett lefty Brandon Schaeffer matched Gregory zero for zero. He surrendered two singles, issued a walk, hit a batter and struck out three in his four frames before handing the ball off to Jimmy Kingsbury (L, 0-1), who retired the side in order in the fifth before allowing the decisive run in the sixth. Ryan McCarty led the inning off with a single and Cade Doughty was hit by an 0-2 pitch to put two on for Martinez. The #27 Blue Jays prospect launched a deep drive to left that Mike Salvatore tracked to the wall but couldn’t quite catch, which allowed McCarty to race home from second to put Vancouver in front 1-0. Everett did well to limit the damage by striking out the next three hitters to douse the rally.

Ian Churchill (W, 1-0) – who was instrumental in the Game 1 win – was the first man out of the ‘pen. The lefty got out number one in the fifth, walked the next man then induced a ground ball for what could have been an inning-ending double play but instead turned into a fielder’s choice and an error to put runners at the corners with one away. He K’ed the next two hitters to end the threat, went 1-2-3 in the sixth then got the first out of the seventh before surrendering two soft singles. That brought on Ryan Boyer (H, 1), who stranded both runners he inherited to keep the C’s ahead by a run then worked around a single in the eighth to preserve the lead.

Conor Larkin (S, 1) secured the win in style, striking out Ford with the tying run at first in the ninth to end the game while 6,413 rabid fans stood in unison.

With the win, the Canadians will have a chance to clinch the Northwest League Championship Saturday evening. Gates open at 6:00 p.m. with first pitch set for 7:05 p.m. Less than 500 tickets remain at CanadiansBaseball.com and coverage of the action will be live on the C’s Broadcast Network: Bally Live, the MiLB First Pitch app and Sportsnet 650.