HILLSBORO, OR – A one-sided beat down turned into an indigestion-inducing tightrope walk that ended with a position player getting the final out to secure a 10-7 win for the Vancouver Canadians in game three of their series with the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks) at Ron Tonkin Field Thursday night.

Leading 10-1 to start the bottom of the ninth, the C’s sent Jol Concepcion back to the mound after he worked around a walk and a double in a scoreless eighth. The right-hander went on to walk the first three batters before getting his first out via a sacrifice fly that made it 10-2. Lyle Lin followed with a soft safety to score another run before a seeing eye single from Channy Ortiz brought the Hops within six. That bounced Concepcion and brought in Mark Simon, who proceeded to give up a two-RBI double to Caleb Roberts on the first pitch he threw to make it 10-6. A wild pitch moved Roberts to third and AJ Vukovich brought him in with a ground out to cut the Canadians lead to three. Adrian Del Castillo was plunked two pitches later then stole second before going to third on another wild pitch and Tristin English walked to put men at the corners and bring the potential tying run to the plate in the form of #14 Diamondbacks prospect Ryan Bliss.

With his back against the wall, Vancouver skipper Brent Lavallee called upon starting left fielder Mack Mueller – who had already gone 3-for-4 with a run scored, an RBI and a walk at the plate – for the third time this year to get the final out. The Abilene, TX native struck out Bliss on four pitches to end the game, secure a 10-7 win with his first professional save and end the first half of the 2022 season on a semi-high note. He owns a 0.00 ERA in 3.1 innings of late relief with no hits, a walk, an intentional walk and four strikeouts this year.

The ninth inning meltdown cast a shadow over a banner day at the plate for much of the C’s offense. Vancouver got a run in the first when Steward Berroa started the game with a triple and scored on a groundout before they plated seven runs on five hits – highlighted by a two RBI single from Anthony Morales, a three-run homer courtesy of Davis Schneider and Damiano Palmegiani’s two-run double (which proved to be the game-winning hit) – with three walks over eleven batters.

Single runs scored in the fifth and sixth on RBI singles from Mueller and Addison Barger, respectively.

19 Blue Jays prospect Yosver Zulueta (W, 1-3) returned to form with five innings of one-run ball in which he scattered three hits, walked two and struck out five for his first High-A win. Justin Kelly was excellent in two scoreless innings of relief.

Mueller’s three hits and Schneider’s four RBI – to match a personal season high – paced the offense. Barger’s knock in the sixth extended his hitting streak to 10 games, the third-longest C’s hitting streak of the year. Seven of nine starters had a hit and eight reached base.

Top Blue Jays pitching prospect and the #93 prospect in all of baseball Ricky Tiedemann gets the ball Friday night hoping to secure a series split. He’ll be opposed by Scott Randall. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. with coverage on CanadiansBaseball.com, MiLB.TV and the Sportsnet Radio Network.