Hops Use Entire Arsenal for Third Straight Win

On Friday night, the Hillsboro Hops came out victorious in an 12-6 slugfest against the Vancouver Canadians. Every batter in the Hops order had at least one hit, tying a season high of fifteen as a team. Hillsboro's twelve runs were also a season high. Axel Andueza homered for the second night in a row and Cam Coursey came up with a Hops season high of four hits in a game.

Justin Vernia got the start for the Hops and was countered by CJ Van Eyk . After Vernia tossed two scoreless innings, Hillsboro's bats exploded for six runs in the bottom of the second. The Hops started the inning with three straight singles, including the first of Coursey's four hits. With the bases loaded, Van Eyk recorded back-to-back strike outs. However, the inning was far from over. A two out walk to Roman Ruiz brought in the first run of the game. Dominic Canzone drove a three-run triple over the head of Sebastian Espino . The last blow of the inning came on a two-run blast by Andueza over the left center field fence to put the Hops up 6-0.

The C's answered back with three runs of their own in the top of the fourth. In their half of the frame, the Hops added two runs as Van Eyk continued to struggle. Ruiz singled and Canzone was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second with no one out. The Hops were then able to capitalize on a throwing error by Van Eyk that brought Ruiz into score. That would be all for Van Eyk's night. The C's new pitcher Sean Mellen got Spencer Brickhouse and Tristin English to strike out to retire the side, but not before a wild pitch brought in Andueza to score to extend the Hops' lead to 8-3.

Vernia continued his struggles in the fifth as the C's responded with three more runs. Kyler Stout took over for Vernia and after back-to-back walks, the right hander got Davis Schneider and Andres Guerra down on strikes to end the threat.

Vancouver's bullpen didn't fare much better against Hillsboro's hot bats. Diaz and Coursey singled to start a rally in the bottom of the fifth. With runners then on at second and third, Nick Dalesandro drove in Diaz on an RBI ground out. Reece Hampton capped off the two-run inning with a single to center field to bring in Coursey.

The Hops' bullpen took care of business, not allowing a run from the sixth inning on. Justin Lewis earned his first win of the season with three scoreless innings out of relief. Hops' newcomer Bobby Ay closed the door in the ninth in his Hillsboro debut. Canzone led the team with three RBIs and Coursey was four for four with three runs scored. With the win tonight, the Hops tied a season high of three straight wins.

Hillsboro (27-35) will face off against Vancouver (31-33) again tomorrow night at 7:05 p.m. Catch all the action on Rip City Radio 620AM and www.RipCityRadio.com with the pregame coverage beginning at 6:50.