Guelph Royals suffer another quarter-final ousting
GUELPH – There was no miracle comeback for the Guelph Royals as they completed the final four innings of their Intercounty Baseball League season without scoring another run in front of a sparse crowd on a cool Wednesday night at Hastings Stadium.
Their opponents, the Toronto Maple Leafs, did add a pair of runs to claim a 10-4 victory in Game 4 of the best-of-five quarter-final playoff series. The win gives the Leafs a 3-1 victory in the series and a berth in the semifinals.
Toronto Maple Leafs 10 Guelph Royals 4
About 120 spectators (at its highest point) witnessed Wednesday’s four innings that were the completion of a game suspended at the end of the fifth inning the night before. IBL stipulates that its playoff games must go 9 innings – 8½ if the home team is ahead.
The Royals, who never really got going during the regular season as their season-high four-game win streak came in early June, never really got going in Game 4, either. Yes, they did score the opening two runs of the game Tuesday to lead (they held the lead at some point in all four games), but they immediately surrendered seven runs in the second, got caught up in their disagreement with the balls and strike calls of umpire Adam De Caire and never scored a run after Chris Robinson’s solo homer in the fourth.
Wednesday, they couldn’t convert any of their base runners into runs, leaving seven stranded in the four innings.
The Leafs weren’t much better as they, too, left seven on the bases Wednesday, but they did score the two runs. Toronto’s Greg Carrington was issued a two-out walk by Hector Yan with the bases loaded to score a run in the sixth. Carrington was also at the plate in the eighth following a one-out double by Jesse Hodges when Yomar Concepcion, Guelph’s sixth pitcher of the game, unleashed a pair of wild pitches that allowed Hodges to score.
Yan and Concepcion each pitched two innings Wednesday and each allowed a hit and an earned run. Yan walked four, hit a batter and struck out four while Concepcion fanned two.
Julien Valdez (1 2/3 innings), Adam Marra (1 1/3 innings) and Marek Deska (1 inning) shared the pitching for Toronto. Valdez yielded two hits and three walks and struck out one while Marra had a strikeout and Deska walked two.
Claudio Custodio and Conner Morro had Guelph’s hits Wednesday as both belted doubles.
The Leafs also had two hits Wednesday as Hodges clubbed his double in the eighth and Garrett Takamatsu hit a single in the sixth.
Tuesday’s starters got the decisions as Wilgenis Alvarado picked up the win for the Leafs and Custodio took the loss for the Royals.
The loss extends the Royals’ league-high streak of non-appearances in the semifinals. They last won a quarter-final series in 2012 when they became the last opponent of the Ottawa Fat Cats who pulled out of the league prior to the 2013 season. That makes it eight consecutive quarter-final oustings for the Royals who didn’t participate in the 2017 playoffs as they pulled out of the league midway through the season with a dismal record and then-owner Jim Rooney experiencing health issues. They also didn’t participate in the league in 2020 (nobody did) and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The only other team in the eight-team league not to reach the semifinals since the pandemic is the Kitchener Panthers and that could change tonight (Aug. 31) when they host the defending-champion London Majors in Game 5 of their quarter-final.
Brantford Red Sox reached the semifinals in 2021 while Hamilton Cardinals and London both reached the semifinals last year. Welland Jackfish, Barrie Baycats and Toronto are there this year. Jackfish and Leafs were both there last year, too, while Barrie was there in 2021.
Now it’s time to sit back and wait to see what the offseason brings for the Royals, especially in the terms of the return of manager Dino Roumel and his staff, the local veterans and the imports.
As for the league, the Chatham-Kent Barnstormers are to join the action in 2024.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Guelph Royals suffer another quarter-final ousting
GUELPH – There was no miracle comeback for the Guelph Royals as they completed the final four innings of their Intercounty Baseball League season without scoring another run in front of a sparse crowd on a cool Wednesday night at Hastings Stadium.
Their opponents, the Toronto Maple Leafs, did add a pair of runs to claim a 10-4 victory in Game 4 of the best-of-five quarter-final playoff series. The win gives the Leafs a 3-1 victory in the series and a berth in the semifinals.
Toronto Maple Leafs 10
Guelph Royals 4
About 120 spectators (at its highest point) witnessed Wednesday’s four innings that were the completion of a game suspended at the end of the fifth inning the night before. IBL stipulates that its playoff games must go 9 innings – 8½ if the home team is ahead.
The Royals, who never really got going during the regular season as their season-high four-game win streak came in early June, never really got going in Game 4, either. Yes, they did score the opening two runs of the game Tuesday to lead (they held the lead at some point in all four games), but they immediately surrendered seven runs in the second, got caught up in their disagreement with the balls and strike calls of umpire Adam De Caire and never scored a run after Chris Robinson’s solo homer in the fourth.
Wednesday, they couldn’t convert any of their base runners into runs, leaving seven stranded in the four innings.
The Leafs weren’t much better as they, too, left seven on the bases Wednesday, but they did score the two runs. Toronto’s Greg Carrington was issued a two-out walk by Hector Yan with the bases loaded to score a run in the sixth. Carrington was also at the plate in the eighth following a one-out double by Jesse Hodges when Yomar Concepcion, Guelph’s sixth pitcher of the game, unleashed a pair of wild pitches that allowed Hodges to score.
Yan and Concepcion each pitched two innings Wednesday and each allowed a hit and an earned run. Yan walked four, hit a batter and struck out four while Concepcion fanned two.
Julien Valdez (1 2/3 innings), Adam Marra (1 1/3 innings) and Marek Deska (1 inning) shared the pitching for Toronto. Valdez yielded two hits and three walks and struck out one while Marra had a strikeout and Deska walked two.
Claudio Custodio and Conner Morro had Guelph’s hits Wednesday as both belted doubles.
The Leafs also had two hits Wednesday as Hodges clubbed his double in the eighth and Garrett Takamatsu hit a single in the sixth.
Tuesday’s starters got the decisions as Wilgenis Alvarado picked up the win for the Leafs and Custodio took the loss for the Royals.
The loss extends the Royals’ league-high streak of non-appearances in the semifinals. They last won a quarter-final series in 2012 when they became the last opponent of the Ottawa Fat Cats who pulled out of the league prior to the 2013 season. That makes it eight consecutive quarter-final oustings for the Royals who didn’t participate in the 2017 playoffs as they pulled out of the league midway through the season with a dismal record and then-owner Jim Rooney experiencing health issues. They also didn’t participate in the league in 2020 (nobody did) and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The only other team in the eight-team league not to reach the semifinals since the pandemic is the Kitchener Panthers and that could change tonight (Aug. 31) when they host the defending-champion London Majors in Game 5 of their quarter-final.
Brantford Red Sox reached the semifinals in 2021 while Hamilton Cardinals and London both reached the semifinals last year. Welland Jackfish, Barrie Baycats and Toronto are there this year. Jackfish and Leafs were both there last year, too, while Barrie was there in 2021.
Now it’s time to sit back and wait to see what the offseason brings for the Royals, especially in the terms of the return of manager Dino Roumel and his staff, the local veterans and the imports.
As for the league, the Chatham-Kent Barnstormers are to join the action in 2024.
- Guelph Sports Journal
