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Canadians come up just shy of combined no-no

Somer Breeze Staff writer

The Vancouver Canadians were three outs away from a no-hitter last Wednesday when Anthony Rea entered as the fourth pitcher on the night.

Eugene’s Chad Huffman, leading off the ninth inning, grounded to shortstop and beat out the throw to first base, despite Rea’s protest that Huffman was out.

Eugene added Craig Cooper’s soft single to center field and Vancouver settled for a 5-0 win.

Chad Lee, Keith Eusebio and Matthew Manship combined on eight no-hit innings.

Out of Yakima

Even though Brad Miller is on the weakest-hitting team in the Northwest League, Yakima (.237), the Bears first baseman/cleanup hitter has posted nine home runs and a league-high 45 runs batted in this season. When the Bears faced the Eugene Emeralds in five-game series Aug. 4-8, the first four games produced seven ejections. Eugene’s pitching coach was ejected in the opener, followed by Yakima’s pitching coach in the second game. Yakima manager Jay Gainer, the team’s first-base coach and pitcher Craig Pfautz were tossed in the third game, and the next night Gainer and the first-base coach were tossed again.

NWL president Bob Richmond, contacted by phone, said league umpires are provided by Minor League Baseball. He didn’t’ say whether the umpires would face any disciplinary actions.

Foiled plan

Pitcher Armando Galarraga was recently assigned to Spokane from parent club Texas on a rehab assignment, but the right-hander was re-injured before making the trip.

Galarraga was on the Rangers’ 40-man roster at the beginning of the season.

NWL awards

Cyle Hankerd of Yakima earned offensive player of the week honors, posting a .577 batting average. He also tallied five doubles and four RBIs. Hankerd entered the week hitting .335 and raised it to .370 over six games. Heading into Saturday’s game, he led the league at .377.

Salem-Keizer’s Gib Hobson was named the NWL pitcher of the week. Hobson hadn’t won in his previous six starts, but Monday night he allowed one hit over six shutout innings in the Volcanoes’ 1-0 win over the Boise Hawks. During the week, Hobson was 1-0 in 12 innings with a 1.50 ERA. He allowed two hits and struck out 10.