Hops Blanked in B.C.
June 28, 2016 - Northwest League (NWL1)
Hillsboro Hops News Release
The Hillsboro Hops will be back on U.S. soil Tuesday night. They will have very little to declare at the Canadian border crossing on the way home.
The Hops (3-8) won just one of five games in Vancouver as they dropped their third consecutive series to start the season. Three Vancouver pitchers combined on a five-hit shutout Monday night as the Canadians (7-4) blanked the Hops 3-0.
Justin Maese (1-1) allowed five hits over seven innings with four strikeouts and no walks to earn the win. Grayson Huffman and Jackson Lowery retired all six batters they faced, with Lowery notching his fourth save of the season.
The news isn't all bad from Hillsboro's five-game foray to British Columbia: a team struggling on defense committed just two errors over the final four games of the series. The Hops got solid pitching performances the entire series, particularly from the bullpen. In 15 2/3 relief innings, the Hops allowed just four runs, all by the same pitcher, Trevor Simms, in a span of two innings Saturday.The Hops got good enough performances from their starting pitchers, including Anfernee Benitez' six-inning, five-hit, three-run outing Monday night.
The Hops simply aren't hitting up to professional standards through 11 games of the season and there is no one player to point the finger at. For the seventh time in eight games, the Hops were held to six hits or less, cobbling together just five hits Monday. Hillsboro went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. Alexis Olmeda had Hillsbor's only extra-base hit, a seventh-inning double. Down 3-0 at that point, the Hops made eight consecutive outs to close the game.
Hillsboro had only two base runners after the third inning, when Vanouver scored its first two runs. A leadoff walk and back-to-back bunt singles loaded the bases against Hops' starting pitcher Anfernee Benitez. Javier Hernandez scored on a sacrifice fly by Deiferson Barreto. After Benitez threw out Rodrigo Orozco at home for the second out, Jacob Anderson delivered an RBi single to score Lance Jones.
The C's added an insurance run in the fourth on former Oregon State Beaver Gabriel Clark's line drive home run to left.
Hillsboro had leadoff base runners in the first and third innings But a strikeout and double play snuffed the first-inning rally before it started and back-to-back ground outs followed Adam Walton's leadoff single in the third before Marcus Wilson looked at a called strike three for the first of what would be three times on the night.
Walton had two hits for the Hops, his first as a professional after being signed by the Diamondbacks as an undrafted free agent out of the University Of Illinois. Anderson had two hits for Vanouver, his third multi-hit game of the series. A former high draft pick of the Blue Jays, Anderson had played just 22 games the last three years combined while battling injuries.
The Hops take on the Eugene Emeralds Tuesday night in the first game of a three-game home series at 7:05 p.m. Tune in to Rip City Radio 620 AM for pregame coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m.
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Northwest League Stories from June 28, 2016
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- Hops Blanked in B.C. - Hillsboro Hops
- Canadians Extend Winning Ways To Three Games - Vancouver Canadians
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