Blonde Beatdown: Hops Rock C's Pen, Clinch Series
August 10, 2025 - Northwest League (NWL)
Hillsboro Hops News Release
VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The Hops may be out of the playoff picture, but they are back to playing winning baseball as the Northwest season reaches its final month.
Down 3-0 in the sixth inning after a strong start by Vancouver righthander Chris McElvain, the Hops (15-27 second half, 48-60 overall) ambushed his larger doppelganger Colby Holcombe, batting around in the inning on the way to seven unanswered runs and a 7-5 victory at Nat Bailey Stadium in front of a second straight sellout crowd of 6,014.
Top Blue Jays prospect Arjun Nimmala hit a three-run homer in the third inning to put the C's (21-21, 58-50) on top and McElvain limited Hillsboro to four hits and no walks with three strikeouts over five scoreless innings.
But the imposing, 6-5, 250-pound blonde-maned Alabaman Holcombe (3-11) took over on the hill in the sixth and promptly walked Cristofer Torin. After an Angel Ortiz single and Jansel Luis sacrifice fly, Hops catcher Kenny Castillo jumped on the first pitch from Holcombe and sent it into the parking lot for a game-tying two-run homer.
The rally continued with a Modeifi Marte single and one out later Kevin Sim was hit by a pitch, ending the former Mississippi St. hurler's afternoon. Southpaw Johan Simon came on to face Hillsboro's lefty-hitting leadoff man Slade Caldwell, who capped his best series in a Hops uniform with a go-ahead RBI single up the middle. A Simon balk plated Sim with the fifth run of the inning. All five runs were charged to Holcombe.
Hillsboro tacked on two more runs in the seventh off Simon on a Torin single, Ortiz RBI double to the wall in right and a single up the middle by Castillo, again on the first pitch to him.
Daniel Nunez (5-5) limited the Canadians to a single hit, no walks and two strikeouts over two scoreless innings to pick up his second relief win of the week.
A shaky seventh inning of relief from Dawson Brown got the Canadians back within two as they parlayed two wallks, two hits and a wild pitch into a pair of runs, but Brown struck out Carter Cunningham looking with the tying runs on base and Ricardo Yan and Carlos Rey combined to retire six straight to close the game after a leadoff Nick Goodwin single in the eighth, Rey recording his sixth save in his league-leading 39th appearance this season.
Caldwell went 3-for-5 out of the leadoff spot and recorded his fourth RBI of the week. The 2024 D-Backs' first-rounder went 8-for-22 at the plate for the series and walked six times. Torin finished with his third multi-hit game of the week, going 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored. Castillo's three RBI's matched his most in a Hops uniform, set against Vancouver at home back on July 8.
The Hops outhit the Canadians 12-6 on Sunday in taking four of the six games in the series. Last season Hillsboro went 1-11 at Nat Bailey Stadium. This year, their record at the NWL's oldest ballpark is 8-10.
After a day off Monday, the Hops open their second-to-last home series, taking on the Everett AquaSox this week. Game one against the Seattle Mariners affiliate is at 6:35 p.m. Tuesday with radio pregame coverage beginning at 6:20 on Rip City Radio 620.
Northwest League Stories from August 10, 2025
- AquaSox Drop Series Finale - Everett AquaSox
- Blonde Beatdown: Hops Rock C's Pen, Clinch Series - Hillsboro Hops
- Nimmala Homers, C's Fall 7-5 - Vancouver Canadians
- Tri-City Takes Fourth in a Row off Everett - Tri-City Dust Devils
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