One-Hit Wonder: Hops Beat C’s, Split Series

VANCOUVER, B.C. (May 4, 2025) --- Baseball is a funny game, wrote Joe Garagiola. That was on display over the final four games of the Hillsboro Hops’ six-game series in Vancouver. The Hops tallied 32 hits in a pair of wins on Thursday and Friday. Saturday? Just two hits in a 6-0 loss. And Sunday? Only one hit… but it was enough for a 2-1 win in the final game of a six-game series at Nat Bailey Stadium. The Hops won three of the final four to earn a series split.

Vancouver led 1-0 entering the top of the seventh inning on Sunday, when center fielder Druw Jones drew a one-out walk. First baseman Ben McLaughlin then clubbed a 1-0 pitch over the head of Canadians’ right fielder Je’Von Ward. The ball bounced on the warning track for a two-bagger, and Jones scored all the way from first to tie the game.

Gavin Logan walked, and Junior Franco hit a ground ball to first. First baseman Brennan Orf, seeking an inning-ending double play, fielded and threw wildly past shortstop Arjun Nimmala and into left field. McLaughlin scored to make it 2-1. Hillsboro had a chance to pad the lead, but stranded runners at second and third. (The Hops were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.)

A quintet of Hops pitchers made the two runs on one hit stand up. Starter Ricardo Yan worked 3.2 innings, allowing just one hit. Wildness, though, got him into some trouble. A walk, a hit batter and a Victor Arias RBI ground-out in the top of the third put Vancouver up 1-0. Another walk and hit batter in the fourth led to Yan being pulled from the game with two out. Lefty Nate Savino, the newest Hop, walked the first man he faced to load the bases. The count went to 3-and-2 to leadoff batter Adrian Pinto… and Savino struck him out looking on a fastball on the inside corner.

The Canadians were held off the board in the fifth, in part because of a great defensive play by Jones. With two out, Aaron Parker singled off Savino, and Cutter Coffey followed with a sinking liner to center. Jones came up short on a sliding catch, and the ball caromed off him a few feet away. Parker tried to go first-to-third, and Jones pounced on the ball and gunned a long strike to third baseman Demetrio Crisantes for the final out of the inning.

Savino tossed a perfect sixth, and Alexis Liebano and Carlos Rey combined on a scoreless seventh.

Rey walked two in the eighth, but with the tying run at second and go-ahead run at first, he struck out Canadians catcher Alex Stone swinging on a slider to end the threat.

After the Hops left a potential insurance run on second in the top of the ninth, lefty Phil Abner came on for the bottom of the inning. He struck out the first two batters, then induced Nimmala to hit a foul pop-up on the right side. McLaughlin caught it at the Hops’ dugout railing to end the game.

Savino (1-0) got the win and Abner earned his third save. Edinson Batista (1-1) took the loss.

Tri-City lost 1-0 at home to Spokane, and hours later, Eugene lost 10-8 at home to Everett. The Hops (16-11) have a two-game lead in the Northwest League over both Eugene and Tri-City. Vancouver (13-14) is three games out.

Sunday’s game was the fourth time in franchise history the Hops have been held to just one hit, and the first such game they won. They’ve never been no-hit.

Fun fact I: The four combined hits between both teams matches the second-fewest in any Northwest League game since Hillsboro entered the league in 2013. The fewest remains three, in a 1-0, 10-inning win for the Hops at home against Boise on August 13th, 2014. This is the sixth time in a NWL game since 2013 that both teams have combined for exactly four hits.

Fun fact II: The Hops are the second team in affiliated professional baseball this season --- major or minor leagues --- to win a game in which they had one or fewer hits. On April 18th, the Charleston RiverDogs of the Class-A Carolina League were no-hit by the Hickory Crawdads, but won the game 1-0.

The Hops have the customary Monday off, and on Tuesday they open a six-game series at home against Eugene. The radio pregame show begins at 6:20PM on Rip City Radio 620AM and at www.RipCityRadio.com. The MILB.tv telecast begins at 6:30PM.