VANCOUVER, BC – After scoring first, the Canadians fell 10-7 to the Eugene Emeralds (SF) Wednesday night at The Nat. The C’s carried the lead into the third before an Emerald's home run in the fourth put them ahead, and a grand slam in the fifth put the Canadians behind 9-3. Attempting to make a comeback, JR Freethy and Alexis Hernandez both hit home runs in the latter half of the game, but the C’s fell short.
The Canadians scored their first run six pitches into the game. Maddox Latta doubled, went to third on a sacrifice bunt where no outs were recorded and scored on a wild pitch. Tucker Toman added one more in the later in the inning with a two-out single. The Emeralds’ Zander Darby hit a solo home run in the second frame, making the score 2-1.
In the fourth, the Emeralds scored four runs of which three came on a go-ahead homer. The C’s didn’t wait long to respond; they scored a run in the bottom of the stanza on a Brennan Orf RBI single that put them behind by two.
Eugene took an even bigger lead when Carlos Gutierrez hit a grand slam in the top of the fifth inning to go ahead 9-3. JR Freethy answered in the bottom half by sending his second home run of the season over the right field fence with one runner on base to pull Vancouver within four.
During the C’s next trip to bat, Alexis Hernandez hit a dinger over the scoreboard in center field that went 406 feet and came off the bat at 100 MPH. The Hernandez home run made it 9-7 Eugene.
In the top of the eighth, Eugene extended their lead by one, which would make the final score 10-7.
Landen Maroudis made his tenth start for the Canadians. He pitched for four innings, gave up five hits with five earned runs, walked two, and struck out one.
Gilberto Batista relieved Maroudis to start the fifth inning and finished out the game. During his time on the mound, the righty gave up six hits, five earned runs, walked three and K’ed one.
Eugene evens the series 1-1, and the C’s will look to take the lead again tomorrow as part of Dog Days of Summer presented by CHARM Pet Food. Daniel Guerra will get the start against MLB Pipelines #8 Jacob Bresnahan. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m.