The Boise Hawks blew a six-run lead and fell to the Vancouver Canadians (Blue Jays), 10-7.
The Hawks had gotten off to an early lead in this game, scoring once in the second and third innings, three times in the fifth and twice in the sixth to take a 7-1 lead. But the Canadians got back on the board with two runs in the sixth inning when Hunter Ackerman allowed the first two batters to reach and James Pugliese let them both score.
Then the disastrous seventh inning came. Pugliese allowed a single and a home run to start the inning and make it 7-5 Hawks. After a strike out, a runner reached on an error by third baseman Jeimer Candelario. Pugliese got one more out on a force out at second on a fielder's choice off the bat of Carlos Ramirez. Ramirez stole second and scored on a single to cut the Hawks lead to 7-6. Pugliese then exited for Hayden Simpson with a man on first base and two outs.
Simpson walked the first batter and then it looked like he'd gotten out of the inning with a ground ball to Gioskar Amaya. But on the short throw shortstop Marco Hernandez, Amaya threw the ball into left field, much as he had done in last night's game.
The Hawks never recovered. Simpson walked in the tying run before exiting for Rafael Diplan, who gave up a two-run single and then threw a wild pitch to tack on a third insurance run. He then got the final out of the inning, but not before seven runs had scored on four hits, two walks, two errors and a wild pitch.
Ian Dickson pitched the first three innings and allowed one run on two hits. He walked three and struck out three. Simpson took the loss after he allowed three runs, all of which were unearned. Simpson didn't allow a hit or retire a batter. He walked two batters.
Before the deluge came, shortstop Hernandez was 3 for 5. He scored twice and had two RBI. Third baseman Jeimer Candelario was 2 for 5 with an RBI. DH Dan Vogelbach had an RBI double in the third and walked in a run in the fifth. He was 1 for 4.
The Hawks have a long, sad twelve-hour bus trip back to Boise tomorrow where they'll take on Vancouver in game two on Saturday night and game three on Sunday, we hope. They'll just have to forget about this one and take care of business in the Treasure Valley this weekend.