Sonadores Sticks a Nightmare for C's

This Hillsboro Hops followed up their shutout performance last night with a 7-4 victory against the Vancouver Canadians. The Hops were able to survive two homers and four RBIs from Ronny Brito with key base running, timely hits, and a few defensive lapses by the C's. Slade Cecconi earned the win (3-2), giving the Hops seven innings and looked sharp outside of the two mistakes to Brito.

Cecconi and C's starter Nick Fraze put up zeros over the first two frames. Hillsboro's bats struck first in the bottom of the third after Brian Rapp took over for Fraze. The Hops caught a break when Roman Ruiz reached first base on a throwing error by Brito to start the inning. After a sacrifice bunt by Jorge Barrosa, Ruiz advanced to second and came all the way around to score on a wild pitch by Rapp. After a walk and stolen base by Dominic Canzone, fan favorite Andy Yerzy delivered a two-out RBI single to put the Hops up 2-0.

Hillsboro kept the pressure on Rapp in the bottom of the fourth, adding two more runs. The C's defense continued to struggle, recording their second error of the game on a bad throw by Rapp. With Spencer Brickhouse on first as a result of the miscued play, Axel Andueza blasted a two-run homer to put the Hops up 4-0. This was Andueza's first round tripper of the season.

Vancouver responded with a two-run blast of their own in the top of the fifth to close the deficit to 4-2. Cecconi's shutout was spoiled by the first of two homers by Brito. Hillsboro was able to add a little cushion to their lead with two runs in their half of the frame. With one out, Canzone doubled and stole third off C's new pitcher Willy Gaston. After Tristin English walked and stole second base, Yerzy drove in Canzone on a sacrifice fly for his second RBI of the contest. English advanced to third base on the play. The Hops then took advantage of another two out opportunity when Eduardo Diaz lined a base hit to center field to make the score 6-2.

After a scoreless sixth inning, Cecconi made his second mistake to Brito, and it landed over the left center field fence to bring the C's within two runs again. Cecconi's night was over after seven innings. The right hander struck out six and allowed four earned runs.

Hillsboro added insurance in the bottom of the seventh when English brought home Barrosa on a fielder's choice. The Hops' bullpen secured two scoreless innings to close the game and preserve Cecconi's third win of the season. Nick Snyder pitched a one-two-three top of the eighth, earning his fourth hold. In the ninth, Yaramil Hiraldo pitched around two runners on for his third save of the year.

Hillsboro (26-35) will face off against Vancouver (31-32) 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.