Royals clout five homers to clobber Brantford
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals clobbered five homers, 13 hits and the Brantford Red Sox in their Intercounty Baseball League home opener Saturday afternoon at Hastings Stadium.
The power show, led by Josh Garton and J.D. Williams with two homers apiece, helped the Royals drop the Red Sox 10-4.
Guelph Royals 10 Brantford Red Sox 4
Noah Roberts had the other homer for the locals.
“It was funny, the other day we lost a tough one in Barrie, we were in the clubhouse and we talked about how much we love our team and how it’s a matter of time before our bats wake up,” Royals manager Dino Roumel said. “Without Dalton (Pompey) in the lineup and without (Justin) Interisano in the lineup, those are two big holes to fill and you saw J.D. come up and have the game of the year for himself and start to roll a little bit. It’s a matter of timing. It’s a matter of timing for a lot of these guys and some of these guys haven’t played in three years. It’s going to take a few games, but we have a really good lineup.”
Williams put the Royals ahead for good with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first. An out later, Sean Reilly was walked and he stole second before Garton launched his first homer of the game. The stolen base was Reilly’s 30th since the 2009 season and his fourth since 2017.
For Garton, his homers were his first hits of the young season. He had two homers with the Hamilton Cardinals last year and nine with the Royals in 2019.
“He works so hard and he’s really done a lot of great things, Roumel said of Garton. “He’s a great dad and he’s really focused now. There were times where I thought he may have lost focus when he was younger, but I think he really has learned to love the game. He’s come in and he’s a great teammate and now he’s just so strong. Every ball he hits is hard and it’s great to have in the middle of the order.”
Garton also got to play first base with Interisano out with an illness.
“Last time at first base had to be at least five years ago,” Garton said. “Juice is always there, Justin. You never really get to take him out of the spot. It was nice to play it, but I was kind of out of my element.”
After the Royals scored their three runs in the first, Brantford got one back in the top of the second, but the locals scored two more in the bottom of the inning. The Red Sox got those two runs back in the third and the score stayed tight until the Royals scored runs in four consecutive innings with one in the fifth, one in the sixth, one in the seventh and two in the eighth. Brantford’s final run came in the ninth.
Williams finished with two homers, a double and five RBIs while Garton had his two homers and three RBIs. Reilly hit two doubles giving the top four in the order seven hits and eight RBIs. The bottom three had six hits and two RBIs. Roberts had his homer and a single while Brando Leroux hit a double and single. Claudio Custodio clubbed a double while Darius Barlas hit a single.
Royals starter Emilis Guerrero yielded three earned runs off seven hits and a walk in eight innings. He had five strikeouts and induced 18 groundouts.
“Emilis today, he battled,” Roumel said. “He didn’t walk anybody. That’s his game. He’s around the plate so he’s going to get hit once in a while, but he’s not going to walk and get himself into trouble.”
Ben Reid pitched the ninth and gave up an earned run off two hits and a walk.
Jon Dziomba hit a homer for Brantford while Liam Sutherland hit a double and a single and Spencer Jamieson smacked two singles. Nick Burdett hit a double while Jesse Fishbaum, Shamil Ubiera and Colton Fountain each hit a single.
The Red Sox used four pitchers starting with Hayden Stam who took the loss after giving up six earned runs off seven hits and three walks in four innings. Alexander Gowing pitched two innings while Luca Lombardi and Spencer Carroll each pitched an inning. They combined to yield four earned runs off six hits and they didn’t walk anybody. Stam had two strikeouts while Lombardi had one.
The win gets the Royals to the .500 winning percentage mark at 2-2 while the loss kept Brantford winless as the Red Sox are at 0-5.
The Royals are to play the Kitchener Panthers (1-2) at Kitchener’s Jack Couch Park Sunday at 2 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Royals clout five homers to clobber Brantford
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals clobbered five homers, 13 hits and the Brantford Red Sox in their Intercounty Baseball League home opener Saturday afternoon at Hastings Stadium.
The power show, led by Josh Garton and J.D. Williams with two homers apiece, helped the Royals drop the Red Sox 10-4.
Guelph Royals 10
Brantford Red Sox 4
Noah Roberts had the other homer for the locals.
“It was funny, the other day we lost a tough one in Barrie, we were in the clubhouse and we talked about how much we love our team and how it’s a matter of time before our bats wake up,” Royals manager Dino Roumel said. “Without Dalton (Pompey) in the lineup and without (Justin) Interisano in the lineup, those are two big holes to fill and you saw J.D. come up and have the game of the year for himself and start to roll a little bit. It’s a matter of timing. It’s a matter of timing for a lot of these guys and some of these guys haven’t played in three years. It’s going to take a few games, but we have a really good lineup.”
Williams put the Royals ahead for good with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first. An out later, Sean Reilly was walked and he stole second before Garton launched his first homer of the game. The stolen base was Reilly’s 30th since the 2009 season and his fourth since 2017.
For Garton, his homers were his first hits of the young season. He had two homers with the Hamilton Cardinals last year and nine with the Royals in 2019.
“He works so hard and he’s really done a lot of great things, Roumel said of Garton. “He’s a great dad and he’s really focused now. There were times where I thought he may have lost focus when he was younger, but I think he really has learned to love the game. He’s come in and he’s a great teammate and now he’s just so strong. Every ball he hits is hard and it’s great to have in the middle of the order.”
Garton also got to play first base with Interisano out with an illness.
“Last time at first base had to be at least five years ago,” Garton said. “Juice is always there, Justin. You never really get to take him out of the spot. It was nice to play it, but I was kind of out of my element.”
After the Royals scored their three runs in the first, Brantford got one back in the top of the second, but the locals scored two more in the bottom of the inning. The Red Sox got those two runs back in the third and the score stayed tight until the Royals scored runs in four consecutive innings with one in the fifth, one in the sixth, one in the seventh and two in the eighth. Brantford’s final run came in the ninth.
Williams finished with two homers, a double and five RBIs while Garton had his two homers and three RBIs. Reilly hit two doubles giving the top four in the order seven hits and eight RBIs. The bottom three had six hits and two RBIs. Roberts had his homer and a single while Brando Leroux hit a double and single. Claudio Custodio clubbed a double while Darius Barlas hit a single.
Royals starter Emilis Guerrero yielded three earned runs off seven hits and a walk in eight innings. He had five strikeouts and induced 18 groundouts.
“Emilis today, he battled,” Roumel said. “He didn’t walk anybody. That’s his game. He’s around the plate so he’s going to get hit once in a while, but he’s not going to walk and get himself into trouble.”
Ben Reid pitched the ninth and gave up an earned run off two hits and a walk.
Jon Dziomba hit a homer for Brantford while Liam Sutherland hit a double and a single and Spencer Jamieson smacked two singles. Nick Burdett hit a double while Jesse Fishbaum, Shamil Ubiera and Colton Fountain each hit a single.
The Red Sox used four pitchers starting with Hayden Stam who took the loss after giving up six earned runs off seven hits and three walks in four innings. Alexander Gowing pitched two innings while Luca Lombardi and Spencer Carroll each pitched an inning. They combined to yield four earned runs off six hits and they didn’t walk anybody. Stam had two strikeouts while Lombardi had one.
The win gets the Royals to the .500 winning percentage mark at 2-2 while the loss kept Brantford winless as the Red Sox are at 0-5.
The Royals are to play the Kitchener Panthers (1-2) at Kitchener’s Jack Couch Park Sunday at 2 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal