Dust Devils Deftly Down Canadians

Early offense and proficient pitching proved the formula again for the Tri-City Dust Devils (20-18), who took their fifth win of the week in a 7-1 victory over the Vancouver Canadians (18-17) Saturday night at Gesa Stadium.

The Dust Devils opened the scoring in a three-run 1^st inning. It started with a one out infield single by 2B Adrian Placencia, getting on base in front of 1B Gabe Matthews. Matthews socked a double to the gap in left-center, scoring Placencia from first for a 1-0 lead. 3B Werner Blakely stepped up and bashed a pitch from Canadians starter Dahian Santos (1-2) over the center field wall, just right of the batter’s eye, for a 2-run home run and a 3-0 lead after an inning.

Tri-City starter Chase Chaney took the lead and ran with it, holding Vancouver off the scoreboard in his first four innings of work. The visitors, though, would pair singles to lead off the 5^th inning and knock Chaney out of the game three outs shy of being the pitcher of record. The Lawrenceville, Georgia native, who struck out five on the night, handed the remainder to the bullpen.

Lefty Houston Harding (1-0) picked up the slack from there. After allowing a sacrifice fly to plate the Canadians’ only run of the evening, charged to Chaney, in the top of the 5^th, Vancouver could only muster an infield single and a walk off the Mississippian southpaw. Harding pitched three scoreless innings and got the Dust Devils to the 7^th inning stretch in good shape.

Quieted after the early 3-spot, the Tri-City offense came through with clutch two-out hits in both the 5^th and 7^th innings to score multiple runs and grow the lead. In the 5^th, LF Osmy Gregorio delivered a single through the left side with the bases loaded, scoring Placencia and Blakely to push the lead out to 5-1.

In the 7^th, C Gustavo Campero launched a ball toward center field high into the dusky sky. Canadians CF Devonte Brown struggled to locate it, then found it late and made a diving attempt for it. It just eluded his glove, ending up a 2-run triple that plated LF Alexander Ramirez and Gregorio to close out the scoring.

Reliever Willian Suarez pitched the final two innings to finish out the Dust Devils’ fifth win in the first six games of the series, with the team turning the tables on a Vancouver squad that took four of five games in their April series at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium.

At the plate, Gregorio, Matthews and Placencia all had multi-hit games for the home team, and Blakely’s home run was his second in four days. Also, Blakely and Placencia both scored two runs, Blakely for the second straight game.

Tri-City will go for six wins out of seven in the series finale with the Canadians at 1:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Gesa Stadium. Right-hander Bryce Osmond (1-4, 4.76 ERA) will start for the Dust Devils, and Vancouver will counter with righty Devereaux Harrison (0-0, 3.38 ERA). Broadcast coverage of the game begins with the pregame show at 1:10 p.m. both here and at the MiLB First Pitch app.

The second Youth Baseball Clinic of the season, presented by Dutch Bros., will take place before the game on the field surface, with young ballplayers from around the area encouraged to wear their uniform and sharpen their skills with help from both Dust Devils coaches and players.

Tickets for Sunday's game are on sale now. Also, special ticket rates are available for groups of 20 or more. For more information on Dust Devils single game, season, mini-plan (11, 22, 33) and group tickets, visit dustdevilsbaseball.com, call the team office at (509) 544-8789, or visit the team office (10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on game nights, or Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. otherwise).