Guelph Royals edged by London to finish regular season
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals wrapped up their Intercounty Baseball League’s regular season with a 3-2 loss to the London Majors Tuesday night at Hastings Stadium in a game that meant nothing in the final standings for either team.
All four of the league’s quarter-final playoff series and their schedules were set Monday.
London Majors 3 Guelph Royals 2
The Royals were locked into a fifth-place finish, something that was decided about an hour and a half after their loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto Sunday afternoon when the Hamilton Cardinals were dropped 18-5 by the first-place Welland Jackfish.
That loss by Hamilton meant the best the Cardinals could do in the standings was a tie with Guelph and the Royals would win the tiebreaker thanks to winning four of the six regular-season games between the two.
And that’s exactly what happened when the Royals lost to London a day after the Cardinals defeated the Kitchener Panthers.
Tuesday, London scored single runs in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings while the Royals scored a run in the fourth and another one in the ninth, but they couldn’t get the equalizer.
Justin Interisano’s single drove in Malik Collymore with Guelph’s fourth-inning run. Collymore had doubled.
Collymore also scored the ninth-inning run. He singled, went to second on a wild pitch and came home on a double by Owen Ellis.
The Royals collected nine hits in the match with Collymore picking up his double and single. Ellis added his double while Interisano, Ashton Patterson, Josh Garton, Ethan Hammond, Mike Cecchetto and Chris Robinson each hit one single.
Eduardo De Oleo had a double and single for London while Charles Bowman hit a pair of singles and Byron Reichstein added a double. Getting one single apiece were Tommy Reyes-Cruz, Josh Williams and Brett Graham.
Guelph used three pitchers in the game with each getting a three-inning stint. Darren Shred started and he was followed by Kyle Thomas and Yomar Concepcion. Thomas gave up an earned run off four hits while Concepcion yielded two runs, one earned, off three hits and three walks to take the loss. Shred kept London scoreless, but surrendered a hit and a walk. Concepcion had five strikeouts, Thomas four and Shred three.
Robert Mackie started and tossed two scoreless innings for London. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out two.
Winning pitcher Braeden Ferrington pitched the final seven innings, yielding the two earned runs off seven hits and a walk. He had eight strikeouts.
The Royals are to play fourth-place Toronto in the best-of-five quarter-finals. The teams split their regular-season series with each team getting three wins on their home fields.
The series is to start at Toronto’s Christie Pits Thursday at 7:30 p.m. while Game 2 is to go at Hastings Stadium Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Game 3 is slated for Sunday at 2 p.m. at Toronto.
Game 4 is to be played next Tuesday at Hastings Stadium starting at 7:30 p.m. if it’s needed.
If the series needs to go its five-game maximum, Game 5 is scheduled for Aug. 30 at Christie Pits starting at 7:30 p.m.
The Royals are looking for their first playoff series victory since defeating the now-defunct Ottawa Fat Cats 4-2 in a best-of-seven quarter-final in 2012. They’ve been defeated in eight consecutive series since then – the semifinals in 2012 and quarter-finals in 2013 to 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2022. They dropped out of the 2017 season and didn’t play due to COVID in 2020 and 2021.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Guelph Royals edged by London to finish regular season
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals wrapped up their Intercounty Baseball League’s regular season with a 3-2 loss to the London Majors Tuesday night at Hastings Stadium in a game that meant nothing in the final standings for either team.
All four of the league’s quarter-final playoff series and their schedules were set Monday.
London Majors 3
Guelph Royals 2
The Royals were locked into a fifth-place finish, something that was decided about an hour and a half after their loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs in Toronto Sunday afternoon when the Hamilton Cardinals were dropped 18-5 by the first-place Welland Jackfish.
That loss by Hamilton meant the best the Cardinals could do in the standings was a tie with Guelph and the Royals would win the tiebreaker thanks to winning four of the six regular-season games between the two.
And that’s exactly what happened when the Royals lost to London a day after the Cardinals defeated the Kitchener Panthers.
Tuesday, London scored single runs in the fourth, seventh and ninth innings while the Royals scored a run in the fourth and another one in the ninth, but they couldn’t get the equalizer.
Justin Interisano’s single drove in Malik Collymore with Guelph’s fourth-inning run. Collymore had doubled.
Collymore also scored the ninth-inning run. He singled, went to second on a wild pitch and came home on a double by Owen Ellis.
The Royals collected nine hits in the match with Collymore picking up his double and single. Ellis added his double while Interisano, Ashton Patterson, Josh Garton, Ethan Hammond, Mike Cecchetto and Chris Robinson each hit one single.
Eduardo De Oleo had a double and single for London while Charles Bowman hit a pair of singles and Byron Reichstein added a double. Getting one single apiece were Tommy Reyes-Cruz, Josh Williams and Brett Graham.
Guelph used three pitchers in the game with each getting a three-inning stint. Darren Shred started and he was followed by Kyle Thomas and Yomar Concepcion. Thomas gave up an earned run off four hits while Concepcion yielded two runs, one earned, off three hits and three walks to take the loss. Shred kept London scoreless, but surrendered a hit and a walk. Concepcion had five strikeouts, Thomas four and Shred three.
Robert Mackie started and tossed two scoreless innings for London. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out two.
Winning pitcher Braeden Ferrington pitched the final seven innings, yielding the two earned runs off seven hits and a walk. He had eight strikeouts.
The Royals are to play fourth-place Toronto in the best-of-five quarter-finals. The teams split their regular-season series with each team getting three wins on their home fields.
The series is to start at Toronto’s Christie Pits Thursday at 7:30 p.m. while Game 2 is to go at Hastings Stadium Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Game 3 is slated for Sunday at 2 p.m. at Toronto.
Game 4 is to be played next Tuesday at Hastings Stadium starting at 7:30 p.m. if it’s needed.
If the series needs to go its five-game maximum, Game 5 is scheduled for Aug. 30 at Christie Pits starting at 7:30 p.m.
The Royals are looking for their first playoff series victory since defeating the now-defunct Ottawa Fat Cats 4-2 in a best-of-seven quarter-final in 2012. They’ve been defeated in eight consecutive series since then – the semifinals in 2012 and quarter-finals in 2013 to 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2022. They dropped out of the 2017 season and didn’t play due to COVID in 2020 and 2021.
- Guelph Sports Journal