B.C.’s Young leads Eugene against C’s in league finale
Prince George’s Jared Young is going to try to break some hearts at Nat Bailey Stadium.
Young, 22, who played youth ball with the Prince George Knights before moving onto the B.C. Premier League with Kelowna’s Okanagan A’s, is now a second baseman with the Eugene Emeralds, and they’re the Vancouver Canadians’ opponents in the best-of-five Northwest League championship series.
The finale for the short-season single-A loop gets going tonight (8:05 p.m.) at PK Park in Eugene, Ore., with Game 2 slated there Sunday (5:05 p.m.). Game 3 moves to Nat Bailey on Monday (7:05 p.m.). Games 4 and 5, if necessary, are slated for The Nat on Tuesday (7:05 p.m.) and Wednesday (7:05 p.m.), respectively.
The Emeralds, a Chicago Cubs affiliate, are the reigning Northwest League champions. The C’s, a Toronto Blue Jays farm team, won the league crown from 201113, their first three years of their agreement with Toronto. They also made the playoffs in 2014.
The left-handed hitting Young, 22, was a 15th-round draft pick in June by the Cubs after finishing his junior year with the Old Dominion Monarchs, an NCAA program based in Norfolk, Va.
He was 1-for-7 in the Emeralds’ two-game sweep of the Hillsboro Hops in the South Division playoffs, but entered the playoffs on a six-game hitting streak and comes into the series with Vancouver hitting .472 (17-for-36) over his last 10 games. He has one home run and 10 runs batted in over that stretch.
The 6-2, 185-pound Young was Northwest League offensive player of the week for the period ending Sept. 4
In 39 regular-season games with the Emeralds, Young hit .257, with one homer and 15 RBIs.
He didn’t join Eugene until July 8, meaning that he missed Vancouver’s season-opening trip to Eugene June 15-19 and the Emeralds’ visit to the Nat June 29-July 3.
Vancouver was 6-4 against Eugene this season.
The C’s, who completed a twogame sweep of the Spokane Indians in the North Division playoffs on Thursday at the Nat, had the best combined record in the eight-team Northwest League this regular season, at 43-33. They won the first-half pennant to qualify for the playoffs, while Spokane took the second half.
Hillsboro won both halves in the South Division, and Eugene qualified thanks to having the next-best combined record, at 3937. That was tied for fourth best in the league. Counting the regular season, Vancouver comes into the final on a six-game winning streak. Eugene has won five of six going in when you include league play.
Vancouver pitchers struck out 29 hitters in the two games against Spokane and the C’s have given up just two runs in their past 51⅓ innings.
PK Park is located on the University of Oregon campus, right behind the Autzen Stadium, the school’s football facility.
The Oregon Ducks are playing against the Nebraska Cornhuskers there today at 1:30 p.m., which explains the late start to Game 1 between the Emeralds and the Canadians.