A day after they put the brakes on a four-game losing skid, the Northwest League Vancouver Canadians were back adding digits to the loss column after a hard-fought 6-4 loss to the Seattle Mariners-affiliated Everett Aquasox.

The Canadians scored often but failed to put forth a big inning to match the Aquasox four-run 5th, which put them ahead by 3.

The C’s conceded their first run in unimpressive circumstances, as converted first baseman Dusty Napoleon booted the ball to let Travis Howell on with no outs. A passed ball saw the runner move to second, and a second clanger from Napoleon, followed by a throwing error, saw the runner score without benefitting from a legitimate hit.

.289 hitting outfielder Jeremy Barfield knocked in a run for the C’s in the top of the 4th, and Dusty Napoleon atoned for earlier sins with a run-scoring double in the 5th. But the bottom of that frame saw Fabian Gomez relieve Pedro Figueroa in a two-on, one-out situation, and the Canadians pick-off specialist surrendered hits, doubles, walks, wild pitches, leaving the score 5-2 in Everett’s favour.

Barfield chipped one off that lead with a run in the 6th, which Everett regained in the 7th off the pitching of Ken Smalley, and a run-scoring single to struggling Jareck West in the 9th saw the C’s pull up two runs short, losing 6-4.

Barfield and second baseman Marcos Luis led the performances for the Canadians with both pulling 2-4 nights, but a 3-21 combined outing for hitters 1-5 for Vancouver made it heavy going. With the ball in hand, the best performance came from Ryne Tacker, with a scoreless 9th that bought his ERA down to 9.00

August 4, 2008
 Final    1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9      R   H   E 
 Vancouver   0   0   0   1   1   1   0   0   1      4   8   4 
 Everett   0   1   0   0   4   0   1   0   X      6   8   2 
Recap | Box | Audio
W: P. Hann (1-3, 5.59); L: P. Figueroa (0-4, 4.46); SV: E. Fernandez (1)
HR: None.