Dominic Canzone led and followed his teammates in the drubbing of the Spokane Indians in the Hillsboro Hops victory, 7-2.  No home run played a part in this victory, unlike previous games in this series. The Hops did it all with a couple of doubles and quite a few singles.  Mostly, they did it as a team.

Strike-Out Kings

The defense also played a major part.  Starting with the starter Tyler Holton.  In a little less than five innings, Holton struck out ten batters.  Enough for an entire game and Holton strung up that many in a half of a game.  While keeping the batters guessing, Holton also did it with the constitution to hurl 81 pitches.  A little more than the usual 75 pitch limit at the short season level but still significant.

Still, Tyler Holton did not quite make the five inning mark to earn the victory.  But, his bullpen mates continued what he started. Justin Garcia completed the fifth inning for Holton allowing only one hit.  In total, the Hops’ pitchers struck out 16 batters together.

Nick Snyder (W, 2-0) stepped in for the next three innings to keep the Indians batters befuddled at the plate.  Snyder not only kept the home team scoreless but hitless as well. Enough to earn his second win of the season in a relief role.

Mailon Arroyo pitched the ninth in his comfortable role at the end of the game.  By then, the score wasn’t close enough to earn the save but Arroyo did keep the Indians off the base paths by retiring them in order.  Theo McDowell (L, 1-5) started for Spokane and gave up the Hops’ first four runs for the loss.

Walk – Don’t Run

At first, the Hops seemed to not be able to bunch any of their hits together.  In the first two innings, the Hops would get a hit but no support. It figured that they got their first run came without any hits at all.  Ryan January and Ricky Martinez both walked to get on base. Eventually, January scored on a wild pitch while Martinez came home on Tristin English’s sacrifice fly to take the lead that they would never give up.

Then Hops baseball started to appear.  Next inning, Andy Yerzy walked to be followed by three consecutive singles by Eddie Hernandez, January and Martinez.  The Hops increased their lead to 4-1. The sixth inning followed the way it all started. Liover Peguero walked and came home on Canzone’s RBI single.  In the seventh, Tristin English walked and came home on Jesus Marriaga’s RBI double. If it wasn’t for walks, the Hops would have only scored two runs.

Finally, in the ninth, a Canzone single followed by a Hernandez double set the base up for January’s RBI sacrifice fly.  The constant bombardment of Canzone, January, Martinez, English, Yerzy, Peguero and Hernandez never let up and pushed the victory.

Standings

The win increased the Hillsboro Hops (20-12) lead over the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes back to four games with six games left to play.  With the loss, the Spokane Indians (19-13) lead in the Northern Division shrunk to one game over the Tri-City Dust Devils. The four game series at Avista Stadium is finished with both division leading teams splitting the series 2-2.

The Hops will take a travel day off and resume play on Wednesday when the Boise Hawks come to town.  It will be the final home stand of the regular season. Blake Walston (0-0) is scheduled to start for the Hops.  In his last appearance on Thursday, Walston pitched two innings on a limited pitch count giving up one run on two hits for the no decision.

Micah Kaczor (1-3) faces Walston in the game.  In Kaczor’s last appearance on Wednesday, he lasted 5.1 innings.  During that time, he gave up four runs on eight hits for the loss.

The Indians will also take the day off before hosting the Everett Aquasox finishing Spokane’s final home stand of the regular season.

Stay with the Minor League Sports Report for game recaps throughout the regular season and playoffs.  Also, follow me on Twitter for half inning updates on all Hops home games. Next home game is Wednesday at 7:05 PM.

Box Score

By

Greg Stoker

@GDStoker