Canadians advance to NWL Championship

Vancouver tops Spokane 2-1 to sweep North Division Final

The Canadians storm the field just seconds after advancing to the Northwest League Championship on Thursday night. (Mark Steffens - Fotoguy)

By Rob Fai

September 8, 2017

(Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium - Vancouver, B.C.) - A solo home run off the bat of Canadians DH Brock Lundquist helped send Vancouver to the 2017 Northwest League Championship Series with a 2-1 victory over Spokane.Vancouver opened the scoring in the bottom of the 1st inning after Indians

(Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium - Vancouver, B.C.) - A solo home run off the bat of Canadians DH Brock Lundquist helped send Vancouver to the 2017 Northwest League Championship Series with a 2-1 victory over Spokane.
Vancouver opened the scoring in the bottom of the 1^st inning after Indians starter LHP Cole Ragans walked both SS Logan Warmoth and 1B Kacy Clemens with two outs. The next batter, C Riley Adams hit a single to left scoring Warmoth to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead.
The Canadians would extend the lead in the bottom of the 4^th inning when DH Brock Lundquist got to Ragans with a solo home run over the right field fence extending the Vancouver lead.
Spokane's only run came in the top of the 5^th inning shortly after LHP Zach Logue finished off four scoreless for the Canadians. Reliever RHP Justin Dillon gave up a leadoff single to RF Pedro Gonzalez , who stole second base and scored on a base hit off the bat of 2B Kole Enright to make it a one-run game.
Dillon would bounce right back as he did not allow so much as a hit through the 7^th inning before turning the ball over to closer RHP Orlando Pascual . The hard throwing right-hander was dominant as he struck out two in a three-up, three-down top of the 8^th inning but ran into trouble in the top of the 9^th. After a pair of singles given up to leadoff hitter C Matt Whatley and RF Pedro Gonzalez, Pascual got DH Melvin Novoa to ground out to 2B Samad Taylor to end the game giving the Canadians to two-games-to-none North Division Series sweep.
With the win, Vancouver advances to the Northwest League Championship against the Eugene Emeralds who are the defending NWL Champions. Eugene swept past the Hillsboro Hops 2-0 to win the South Division Title.
Spokane            0 0 0     0 1 0     0 0 0                   1 5 0
Canadians      1 0 0 1 0 0    0 0 x 2 6 0
WP:      Dillon (1-0)
LP:        Ragans (0-1)
Sv:        Pascual (1)
Time:   2 Hours 40 Minutes
Attn:    5,588
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