So there’s good news and bad news.

The good news is, the C’s managed to win comfortably against Everett last night, without Jermaine Mitchell in the lineup.

The bad news is, the C’s managed to win comfortably against Everett last night, without Jermaine Mitchell in the lineup.

Yes, good people of the north, Jermaine Mitchell is outta here. The J-Train caught the A-Plane to C-Town and will turn out for the Kane County Cougars tonight as they press forth in the Midwest League playoffs.

It was bound to happen, I guess, and truth be told, it’s amazing we’ve kept him around for as long as we have. Only injury and bad timing have stopped Mitchell from rocketing up the system like Toddric Johnson, Branden Dewing, Chad Boyd, Larry Cobb, Wilber Perez, Matt Sulentic, Scott Moore, etc etc etc have before him, but with two games left in the season, the Oakland Athletics sent down a plan ticket and made Monday’s game the J-Train’s last in red and blue – the same week he was awarded the NWL Player of the Week honour.

Still, we won the GD game, and that’s evidence that the kids left behind have steel in their veins.

More after the flip:
The game started well for the Canadians, in front of a strong 3500-person home crowd. Jason Fernandez opened proceedings with a cruisy first inning from the mound, while a two-out walk to Prowling Greg Dowling was all the inspiration the good guys needed to stage an early run-scoring blitz.

Alex Valdez doubled to left to take the slow-moving Dowling to 3rd base, giving Jake ‘The Rake’ Smith a great RBI opportunity that he attacked with aplomb, doubling to center field for a 2-0 lead.

A lead-off single and subsequent steal to Bryan ‘Salmonella’ Sabatella put Everett in a strong position to respond, which is exactly what they did when Carlos Peguero singled The Stomach Bug home.

But if Aquasox fans figured they were engaged in a comeback, they were sadly mistaken, as the bottom of the second brought the Can-Can’s to the plate with a view to scoring big – Roxy-style.

A one-out single to Andre Piper-Jordan (who is just on fire right now) started things off, before a double to Mike Klug (who is similarly rockin’ the joint) put two men in scoring position for Mike Affronti (who, no surprise here, is in good form right now). Affronti singled up the middle, two runners scored, and the C’s were rolling way with things at 4-1.

But it wasn’t over. 10th round draftee (and recent recoverer from a broken thumb) Christian Vitters kept the ball rolling with a single to right, before a wild pitch and yet another Prowling Greg Dowling walk loaded them up.

“All your base are belong to us!”

Now, you just know that Alex Valdez, the free-swingin’est cat in the entire lineup, would view a bases loaded situation as a grand slam situation, so when he struck out swinging, the only guy that was surprised was the guy that struck out. But that brought Jake The Rake up to the plate, and anyone who has been watching knows that The Rake has had his fair share of grand salami chances and has, at times, not dealt well with the pressure.

Well, scratch that stereotype from the journal, because this time around, Smith played the situation beautifully, singling a hard liner at third base that couldn’t be reined in, scoring two more runners, and busting the lead out to five.

Unfortunately, what might have been a runaway victory turned into a squeaker when Jason started chasin’ – Fernandez allowed two runs to score on a two-out rally in the 3rd, then gave up a solo homer to left to Leury Bonilla in the 4th, narrowing the scoreline to 6-4 Vancouver.

The C’s had a great chance to push further ahead when, in the bottom of the 5th, Christian Vitters led off with a double, then cruised to 3rd on a passed ball. Sadly, strikeouts to Dowling and Valdez, and a Jake Smith ground-out, nullified his threat when it almost would have been easier to bunt him home.

Fernandez was pulled after a clean 5th (after Mike Klug was hit by yet another pitch – his 89th hit-by-pitcher in the last week), to make way for the staunchly clean-sheetable Keith Eusebio, who threw yet another three innings of crystal clear baseball, to add to all the other great relief performances he’s enjoyed of late. Three hits and no runs in three innings is a great settler for a team watching its lead steadily crumble, and when Pat Currin clocked his second save with a clean 9th, the fans were sent home happy.

Special note must be made of Everett pitcher Jose ‘Surreal’ Suriel, who came in for the final two innings for the Flipper Kids and struck out FIVE of six, but by that stage the game was well lost.

Yay.

	September 5, 2006
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Everett 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 9 0 Vancouver 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 X 6 11 0 box | log W: J. Fernandez (1-2, 3.24); L: S. Uhlmansiek (3-6, 4.07); SV: P. Currin (2) HR: EVE: L. Bonilla (7).