Royals drop Cardinals to force series to its limit
HAMILTON – How about a little baseball to start the unofficial final weekend of the summer?
The Guelph Royals forced their best-of-five Intercounty Baseball League quarter-final playoff series to its limit with an 18-3 crushing of the Hamilton Cardinals at Bernie Arbour Stadium Wednesday night.
Guelph Royals 18 Hamilton Cardinals 3
The top of Guelph’s batting order proved to be too much for Hamilton pitchers to handle as Dalton Pompey, Sean Reilly, Conner Morro and Malik Collymore combined for 15 hits, 13 RBIs and 11 runs.
The victory for the Royals squared the series at two wins apiece.
Game 5 is to go Friday night at Hastings Stadium.
If the Royals win that game, they’ll play the Welland Jackfish in the best-of-five semifinals.
If Hamilton wins on Friday night, the Cardinals will play the London Majors in the semifinals.
Wednesday, the Royals grabbed the lead on the fourth pitch of the game as Pompey sent the Ryan Burnside offering out of the park.
While Hamilton closed the gap to a single run as both teams scored two runs in the third, the Cardinals were left behind for good when the Guelph side collected four runs in the fifth and added at least one run in every inning after that. The Royals scored two runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, three in the eighth and five in the ninth.
Hamilton had two runs in the third on Tyler Duncan’s second homer of the series while the other run came in the fifth when Luis Jean doubled to score Julian Russell.
Pompey scored six runs from the leadoff spot as he finished with a homer, triple and two singles. Reilly smacked two homers and two singles. Morro hit three singles and Collymore had a homer and three singles.
Darius Barlas hit two singles while Justin Interisano, Kyle DeGrace, J.D. Williams and Ashton Patterson each hit one single.
Jean finished the game with four hits for Hamilton as he connected for three doubles and a single. Duncan had a homer and a single while Dennis Dei Baning, Laine Renaud, Anthony Buonaiuto, Burnside and Russell each hit a single.
Andrew Case picked up the win for the Royals in his second start of the season. He’s had 16 relief appearances. He held Hamilton to three earned runs off five hits and a walk in five innings.
Emilis Guerrero relieved for three innings, keeping the Cardinals scoreless during his stint. He yielded five hits and a walk and also had four strikeouts.
Jeff MacLeod pitched the ninth. He issued a hit and a walk and had a strikeout, but didn’t give up any runs in his first outing since July 14 of last season when he pitched 1 1/3 innings for the Toronto Maple Leafs against Hamilton.
The Cardinals used five pitchers in the game and every one of them surrendered at least one run, although the run Corben Peters allowed in his 1/3 of an inning of work was of the unearned variety. He gave up a hit and had a strikeout.
Burnside started and took the loss as he was tagged for six earned runs off seven hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings. He didn’t have any strikeouts.
Burnside was relieved by Peters who in turn was relieved by Daury Torrez who yielded two earned runs off four hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Jean and John Filice also saw time of the mound for the hosts. Jean gave up four earned runs off six hits and three walks in two innings while Filice surrendered five runs, four earned, off three hits and three walks in the ninth. He had a strikeout.
After dropping the first two games of the series, the Royals have outscored the Cardinals 34-11 in winning Games 3 and 4.
If the Royals win Friday night to claim the series victory, it’ll be their first series triumph since they defeated the Ottawa Fat Cats 4-2 in the best-of-seven quarter-finals in 2012. They’ve dropped seven consecutive series since then – one in the semifinals and the other six in the quarter-finals.
Game time Friday at Hastings Stadium is 7:30 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Royals drop Cardinals to force series to its limit
HAMILTON – How about a little baseball to start the unofficial final weekend of the summer?
The Guelph Royals forced their best-of-five Intercounty Baseball League quarter-final playoff series to its limit with an 18-3 crushing of the Hamilton Cardinals at Bernie Arbour Stadium Wednesday night.
Guelph Royals 18
Hamilton Cardinals 3
The top of Guelph’s batting order proved to be too much for Hamilton pitchers to handle as Dalton Pompey, Sean Reilly, Conner Morro and Malik Collymore combined for 15 hits, 13 RBIs and 11 runs.
The victory for the Royals squared the series at two wins apiece.
Game 5 is to go Friday night at Hastings Stadium.
If the Royals win that game, they’ll play the Welland Jackfish in the best-of-five semifinals.
If Hamilton wins on Friday night, the Cardinals will play the London Majors in the semifinals.
Wednesday, the Royals grabbed the lead on the fourth pitch of the game as Pompey sent the Ryan Burnside offering out of the park.
While Hamilton closed the gap to a single run as both teams scored two runs in the third, the Cardinals were left behind for good when the Guelph side collected four runs in the fifth and added at least one run in every inning after that. The Royals scored two runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, three in the eighth and five in the ninth.
Hamilton had two runs in the third on Tyler Duncan’s second homer of the series while the other run came in the fifth when Luis Jean doubled to score Julian Russell.
Pompey scored six runs from the leadoff spot as he finished with a homer, triple and two singles. Reilly smacked two homers and two singles. Morro hit three singles and Collymore had a homer and three singles.
Darius Barlas hit two singles while Justin Interisano, Kyle DeGrace, J.D. Williams and Ashton Patterson each hit one single.
Jean finished the game with four hits for Hamilton as he connected for three doubles and a single. Duncan had a homer and a single while Dennis Dei Baning, Laine Renaud, Anthony Buonaiuto, Burnside and Russell each hit a single.
Andrew Case picked up the win for the Royals in his second start of the season. He’s had 16 relief appearances. He held Hamilton to three earned runs off five hits and a walk in five innings.
Emilis Guerrero relieved for three innings, keeping the Cardinals scoreless during his stint. He yielded five hits and a walk and also had four strikeouts.
Jeff MacLeod pitched the ninth. He issued a hit and a walk and had a strikeout, but didn’t give up any runs in his first outing since July 14 of last season when he pitched 1 1/3 innings for the Toronto Maple Leafs against Hamilton.
The Cardinals used five pitchers in the game and every one of them surrendered at least one run, although the run Corben Peters allowed in his 1/3 of an inning of work was of the unearned variety. He gave up a hit and had a strikeout.
Burnside started and took the loss as he was tagged for six earned runs off seven hits and a walk in 4 1/3 innings. He didn’t have any strikeouts.
Burnside was relieved by Peters who in turn was relieved by Daury Torrez who yielded two earned runs off four hits and two walks in 1 1/3 innings. He had four strikeouts.
Jean and John Filice also saw time of the mound for the hosts. Jean gave up four earned runs off six hits and three walks in two innings while Filice surrendered five runs, four earned, off three hits and three walks in the ninth. He had a strikeout.
After dropping the first two games of the series, the Royals have outscored the Cardinals 34-11 in winning Games 3 and 4.
If the Royals win Friday night to claim the series victory, it’ll be their first series triumph since they defeated the Ottawa Fat Cats 4-2 in the best-of-seven quarter-finals in 2012. They’ve dropped seven consecutive series since then – one in the semifinals and the other six in the quarter-finals.
Game time Friday at Hastings Stadium is 7:30 p.m.
- Guelph Sports Journal