Under the C’s – Vancouver reaches 50 wins

It was a night for The Bats at The Nat, as the C’s connected with 15 hits on Saturday night, including five straight in the second inning, en route to a 12-3 pummeling of the Eugene Emeralds [High-A San Francisco affiliate].

For starters, it was ANOTHER sellout at the historic Nat Bailey Stadium in the geographical centre of Vancouver. I always tend to mention the parking lot in these articles, but I figured I’d give some of you a visual of how quickly this place fills up. Still 40+ minutes until the first pitch.

Vancouver and Eugene would start with donuts on the board through the first, and top of the second, before the Vancouver bats came alive, beginning with a line drive single to centre field from Josh Kasevich[Ticket #13 on the Train to Toronto], and then the game turned into a Billy Joel concert; Hit after Hit after Hit.

After Kasevich started the parade, Garrett Spain cracked a double to right field, allowing Kasevich to turn on the jets and wheel home from first, giving Vancouver the 1-0 lead.  Kakai Rios, only in his 8th game with the C’s since being sent down from AA New Hampshire, sent the second straight ball to the right side, singling and sending Spain home. 2-0 Vancouver.  Because the run wasn’t already going well enough already, Estiven Machado[Skydome Hopeful #24] then stepped up to the plate and grounded a single to… you guessed it, right field, moving Rios to 2nd.

Enter THE MOST CONSISTENT HITTER in the Pacific Northwest, Alan Roden.  The Jays 3rd rounder in 2022 currently leads the High-A league with a .325 average and is tied for most hits at 86.  It’s becoming a Pavlovian response for the crowd at The Nat to automatically rise to their feet the second Warren Zeiders’ Ride the Lightning plays on the speakers. Roden would double to that spot, bringing Rios home and moving Machado to 3rd. After a Dasan Brown strikeout finally ended the run of consecutive hits, Michael Turconi singled, this time to centre field, bringing home Machado and Roden home, and increasing the Vancouver lead to 5-0 in the bottom of the second, and they didn’t look back from there.

With the victory on Saturday, Vancouver collects their 50th victory on the campaign and currently sits three games ahead of Everett for first in the Northwest League. The C’s conclude their brief homestand against Eugene at The Nat on Sunday afternoon.