VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Clearly, the HIllsboro Hops bullpen is still a work in progress. WIth some solid performances early in the week, things had appeared to have turned a corner for the Hops relief staff, but Saturday afternoon was another painful reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done.
For the second time this year, the Hops (10-16) built a 6-0 lead only to lose in the bottom of the ninth inning. Manny Beltre singled past a drawn-in Hops infield with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, bringing home the final two runs in an 8-7 Vancouver victory in front of an energized crowd of 3,470 Canadians fans at Nat Bailey Stadium.
Coming on in the ninth for his first save opportunity of 2026, last season's save leader Sam Knowlton (1-2) walked four batters, recording only one out on a strikeout of Jacob Sharp. With the tying run at third and bases loaded, lefthander Rocco Reid came in to try and bail the team out, only to see his second pitch sneak through a hole on the left-side of Hillsboro's drawn-in infield, scoring Alexis Hernandez and Brennan Orf with the game-winning runs.
The Hops led 5-0 after Jorge Soler's three-run homer off Vancouver reliever Gilberto Batista (2-2). Batista has been following 21-year-old righthander Landon Maroudis in a piggyback role this year and has struggled for the most part, with more walks than innings pitched and an earned run average over nine. The Hops made it 6-0 when Slade Caldwell walked and later scored on a Batista wild pitch.
Vancouver (11-15) sliced the lead in half in the bottom of the fifth. After Caden Grice issued his fifth walk of the afternoon, leadoff batter Dub Gleed hit a two-run homer to left. Joangel Gonzalez took over and immediately surrendered back-to-back doubles to Carter Cunningham and Arjun Nimmala to make it 6-3 Hillsboro.
Hops leadoff man Trent Youngblood continued an impressive series with two hits and a walk yesterday. He opened the seventh with an opposite field homer off Batista to make it 7-3 Hops. But Batista buckled down from there allowing just one base runner on a walk while facing the minimum the rest of the way.
Sawyer Hawks had been the Hops closer, but came in to pitch the seventh and eighth innings on this afternoon. He hit Hernandez with a pitch with one out in the seventh and Jacob Sharp followed with a line drive home run that just barely cleared the wall in left field, cutting the Hillsboro lead to 7-5.
The Canadians put the tying runs aboard in the eighth on a Beltre double and a walk to J.R. Freethy, but Hawks escaped with back-to-back strikeouts before the fateful ninth inning.
Knowlton threw a strike on his first pitch of the inning, but missed on his next ten. He fought back from 2-0 to strike out Jacob Sharp. But walks to Orf and Matt Scannell followed, forcing in a run and setting up the heroic Beltre hit.
The Hops have one more shot at a series win when the teams meet in the finale on Sunday. Pregame airtime is at 12:50 p.m. with the first pitch scheduled for 1:05 on Rip City Radio 620 AM.