Guelph Royals double Leafs to keep their focus on fourth
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals kept their eyes on a fourth-place finish in the Intercounty Baseball League standings Saturday night at Hastings Stadium as they claimed a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Royals manufactured a pair of runs in the seventh as Toronto reliever Julian Tymochko had trouble finding the strike zone after replacing starter Wilgenis Alvarado as the hosts came to bat.
Guelph Royals 4 Toronto Maple Leafs 2
Tymochko walked the first two batters he faced, Darius Barlas and Ashton Patterson, on 11 pitches. Ethan Hammond’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners up a base and both took another base, Barlas scoring, as the Toronto hurler uncorked a wild pitch. Josh Garton was walked on four pitches before Malik Collymore’s sacrifice hit to right field scored Patterson’s with the game’s final run.
Jose Vinicio, the game’s first batter, singled off Guelph starter Hector Yan. Vinicio stole second and dove to the plate for the opening run of the game as Jordan Castaldo hit into a double play.
Guelph got that run back in the fourth. Collymore doubled and scored on a two-out error by the Leafs that allowed Owen Ellis to reach base.
Toronto went ahead again with a run in the fifth. Yan walked Yoichi Ishihara and Vinicio and Dan Marra hit back-to-back singles to knock Ishihara home.
The Royals pulled even again in the sixth when Collymore launched a 1-1 pitch into the darkness of the softball enclosure for his first homer of the season.
Hits were hard to come by in the game as the teams combined for a total of seven in the match. However, the pitchers also combined for a total of 15 walks and 20 strikeouts to help the game reach the three-hour mark in duration.
Collymore had two of Guelph’s four hits with his homer and double, the only extra-base hits of the game. Justin Interisano and Barlas each hit singles.
Toronto’s three singles all contributed to the runs by the visitors as Vinicio had two and Dan Marra had one. They were the top two batters in Toronto’s batting order.
All three hits by the Leafs came off Guelph starter Yan who went five innings and surrendered two earned runs. He walked five and struck out six.
Jared Kennedy (1 inning), Yomar Concepcion (2 innings) and Yuki Narita (1 inning) all kept Toronto hitless in their stints. Kennedy struck out two and walked two while Concepcion, who picked up the win, walked one and struck out four. Narita got the save as he fanned two of the three batters he faced in a nine-pitch ninth.
Alvarado gave up two runs, one earned, off all four Guelph hits and four walks in six innings. Tymochko walked three and struck out one in an inning and a third. He had one strikeout while veteran Marek Deska, who’s in his 13th season with the Leafs, struck out both batters he faced.
Saturday’s win by the Royals tightened the three-team battle for fourth between the Royals, Leafs and Cardinals. The Leafs are fourth at 19-20, half a game ahead of the Royals (19-21) and a game and a half ahead of the Hamilton Cardinals (18-22). Two of the three will play each other in the best-of-five quarter-finals that are to start within the next week. The other will play either the Kitchener Panthers (25-14) or Barrie Baycats (26-15).
Welland Jackfish (30-11) have clinched first while Kitchener and Barrie are tied for second. Defending champion London Majors (15-25) will finish seventh while the Brantford Red Sox (8-32) will finish eighth and play Welland in the opening round of the playoffs.
Welland and Barrie each have a single game to play in their regular seasons while the Royals, Hamilton, London and Brantford have two apiece and the Leafs and Kitchener each have three to go.
The Royals and Leafs are to meet again Sunday at Toronto’s Christie Pits. All five games played between the teams in the regular season have been won by the home team.
Guelph is to complete its regular season Tuesday with a game against London at Hastings Stadium. Game time is the usual 7:30 p.m. It’s a makeup for the game rained out last Tuesday.
Hamilton is to host Welland Sunday and play at Kitchener Monday while the Leafs are to play at Brantford Monday and have yet to reschedule a game against the Panthers in Kitchener that was also rained out last Tuesday.
The quarter-finals and semifinals are both best-of-five affairs while the league’s championship series is to be a best-of-seven set.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Guelph Royals double Leafs to keep their focus on fourth
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals kept their eyes on a fourth-place finish in the Intercounty Baseball League standings Saturday night at Hastings Stadium as they claimed a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Royals manufactured a pair of runs in the seventh as Toronto reliever Julian Tymochko had trouble finding the strike zone after replacing starter Wilgenis Alvarado as the hosts came to bat.
Guelph Royals 4
Toronto Maple Leafs 2
Tymochko walked the first two batters he faced, Darius Barlas and Ashton Patterson, on 11 pitches. Ethan Hammond’s sacrifice bunt moved the runners up a base and both took another base, Barlas scoring, as the Toronto hurler uncorked a wild pitch. Josh Garton was walked on four pitches before Malik Collymore’s sacrifice hit to right field scored Patterson’s with the game’s final run.
Jose Vinicio, the game’s first batter, singled off Guelph starter Hector Yan. Vinicio stole second and dove to the plate for the opening run of the game as Jordan Castaldo hit into a double play.
Guelph got that run back in the fourth. Collymore doubled and scored on a two-out error by the Leafs that allowed Owen Ellis to reach base.
Toronto went ahead again with a run in the fifth. Yan walked Yoichi Ishihara and Vinicio and Dan Marra hit back-to-back singles to knock Ishihara home.
The Royals pulled even again in the sixth when Collymore launched a 1-1 pitch into the darkness of the softball enclosure for his first homer of the season.
Hits were hard to come by in the game as the teams combined for a total of seven in the match. However, the pitchers also combined for a total of 15 walks and 20 strikeouts to help the game reach the three-hour mark in duration.
Collymore had two of Guelph’s four hits with his homer and double, the only extra-base hits of the game. Justin Interisano and Barlas each hit singles.
Toronto’s three singles all contributed to the runs by the visitors as Vinicio had two and Dan Marra had one. They were the top two batters in Toronto’s batting order.
All three hits by the Leafs came off Guelph starter Yan who went five innings and surrendered two earned runs. He walked five and struck out six.
Jared Kennedy (1 inning), Yomar Concepcion (2 innings) and Yuki Narita (1 inning) all kept Toronto hitless in their stints. Kennedy struck out two and walked two while Concepcion, who picked up the win, walked one and struck out four. Narita got the save as he fanned two of the three batters he faced in a nine-pitch ninth.
Alvarado gave up two runs, one earned, off all four Guelph hits and four walks in six innings. Tymochko walked three and struck out one in an inning and a third. He had one strikeout while veteran Marek Deska, who’s in his 13th season with the Leafs, struck out both batters he faced.
Saturday’s win by the Royals tightened the three-team battle for fourth between the Royals, Leafs and Cardinals. The Leafs are fourth at 19-20, half a game ahead of the Royals (19-21) and a game and a half ahead of the Hamilton Cardinals (18-22). Two of the three will play each other in the best-of-five quarter-finals that are to start within the next week. The other will play either the Kitchener Panthers (25-14) or Barrie Baycats (26-15).
Welland Jackfish (30-11) have clinched first while Kitchener and Barrie are tied for second. Defending champion London Majors (15-25) will finish seventh while the Brantford Red Sox (8-32) will finish eighth and play Welland in the opening round of the playoffs.
Welland and Barrie each have a single game to play in their regular seasons while the Royals, Hamilton, London and Brantford have two apiece and the Leafs and Kitchener each have three to go.
The Royals and Leafs are to meet again Sunday at Toronto’s Christie Pits. All five games played between the teams in the regular season have been won by the home team.
Guelph is to complete its regular season Tuesday with a game against London at Hastings Stadium. Game time is the usual 7:30 p.m. It’s a makeup for the game rained out last Tuesday.
Hamilton is to host Welland Sunday and play at Kitchener Monday while the Leafs are to play at Brantford Monday and have yet to reschedule a game against the Panthers in Kitchener that was also rained out last Tuesday.
The quarter-finals and semifinals are both best-of-five affairs while the league’s championship series is to be a best-of-seven set.
- Guelph Sports Journal