Royals knock off Majors, now two games out of lead
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals moved to two games from the Intercounty Baseball League lead after dropping the London Majors 7-3 Saturday night at Hastings Stadium.
The loss dropped London out of a share of the lead with the Welland Jackfish.
Guelph Royals 7 London Majors 3
Welland leads at 26-9 while London is a game back in second at 25-10 and the Royals two games back in third at 24-11. The Toronto Maple Leafs are fourth at 21-14, three games behind the Royals, while the Barrie Baycats are fifth at 20-16. The other three teams – Kitchener Panthers (13-21), Hamilton Cardinals (8-26) and Brantford Red Sox (2-32) – are out of the reckoning for winning records.
Saturday, the Royals grabbed a lead they wouldn’t surrender with two runs off four hits in the fifth inning. Brenadn Keys singled and went to second on a groundout and to third on a passed ball. Dalton Pompey singled Keys home while a single by Kyle DeGrace and a London error left Pompey at third. He scored on Josh Garton’s first run-scoring double of the game. He’d also knock Pompey home with a double in the seventh.
The Royals finished with 11 hits and they committed an error while London had seven hits and three errors.
Claudio Custodio continued to push the league’s single-season strikeout total higher as he fanned 13 to give him 170 on the season. The previous mark was 156 set by Ron Stead in 1965 when the league featured a 30-game regular season. Stead made 13 appearances that year, the same as Custodio did when he broke the record with his 157th strikeout of the season July 30.
Custodio was the winning pitcher Saturday, improving his mark to 9-0. He hasn’t suffered a loss in the IBL since July 30, 2017 when he was with Barrie. He yielded three earned runs to London and didn’t walk a batter in seven innings.
Brandon Deans and Andrew Case each pitched a hitless inning in relief. Deans had two strikeouts and a walk while Case had one strikeout.
Jose Arias took the loss for London, his first of the season. He’s at 9-1 after allowing five runs, four earned, off seven hits and two walks in six innings. Pedro De Los Santos and Anderson Acevedo each pitched an inning. De Los Santos gave up two earned runs off three hits and two walks while Acevedo yielded a hit and a walk, but no runs. No strikeouts by either of the relievers.
Pompey hit three singles for the Royals while Garton had his two doubles. Keys had two singles while DeGrace, Malik Collymore, Justin Interisano and Ethan Hammond each had one single.
Cleveland Brownlee smacked his league-leading 14th homer of the season for London. Byron Reichstein added a triple while Andrew Lawrence had two singles and Taylor Wright, Starling Joseph and Keith Kandel each had one single.
The Royals also stole four bases in the match. Collymore had two to give him 21 on the season while Pompey (10th) and Keys (second) each had one.
The Royals are to play the Red Sox at Brantford’s Anderson Stadium Sunday at 2 p.m. and host Barrie Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Hastings Stadium.
- Guelph Sports Journal
Royals knock off Majors, now two games out of lead
GUELPH – The Guelph Royals moved to two games from the Intercounty Baseball League lead after dropping the London Majors 7-3 Saturday night at Hastings Stadium.
The loss dropped London out of a share of the lead with the Welland Jackfish.
Guelph Royals 7
London Majors 3
Welland leads at 26-9 while London is a game back in second at 25-10 and the Royals two games back in third at 24-11. The Toronto Maple Leafs are fourth at 21-14, three games behind the Royals, while the Barrie Baycats are fifth at 20-16. The other three teams – Kitchener Panthers (13-21), Hamilton Cardinals (8-26) and Brantford Red Sox (2-32) – are out of the reckoning for winning records.
Saturday, the Royals grabbed a lead they wouldn’t surrender with two runs off four hits in the fifth inning. Brenadn Keys singled and went to second on a groundout and to third on a passed ball. Dalton Pompey singled Keys home while a single by Kyle DeGrace and a London error left Pompey at third. He scored on Josh Garton’s first run-scoring double of the game. He’d also knock Pompey home with a double in the seventh.
The Royals finished with 11 hits and they committed an error while London had seven hits and three errors.
Claudio Custodio continued to push the league’s single-season strikeout total higher as he fanned 13 to give him 170 on the season. The previous mark was 156 set by Ron Stead in 1965 when the league featured a 30-game regular season. Stead made 13 appearances that year, the same as Custodio did when he broke the record with his 157th strikeout of the season July 30.
Custodio was the winning pitcher Saturday, improving his mark to 9-0. He hasn’t suffered a loss in the IBL since July 30, 2017 when he was with Barrie. He yielded three earned runs to London and didn’t walk a batter in seven innings.
Brandon Deans and Andrew Case each pitched a hitless inning in relief. Deans had two strikeouts and a walk while Case had one strikeout.
Jose Arias took the loss for London, his first of the season. He’s at 9-1 after allowing five runs, four earned, off seven hits and two walks in six innings. Pedro De Los Santos and Anderson Acevedo each pitched an inning. De Los Santos gave up two earned runs off three hits and two walks while Acevedo yielded a hit and a walk, but no runs. No strikeouts by either of the relievers.
Pompey hit three singles for the Royals while Garton had his two doubles. Keys had two singles while DeGrace, Malik Collymore, Justin Interisano and Ethan Hammond each had one single.
Cleveland Brownlee smacked his league-leading 14th homer of the season for London. Byron Reichstein added a triple while Andrew Lawrence had two singles and Taylor Wright, Starling Joseph and Keith Kandel each had one single.
The Royals also stole four bases in the match. Collymore had two to give him 21 on the season while Pompey (10th) and Keys (second) each had one.
The Royals are to play the Red Sox at Brantford’s Anderson Stadium Sunday at 2 p.m. and host Barrie Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Hastings Stadium.
- Guelph Sports Journal