Instant Pitchers Classic goes Baycats way

Written By Dan Haugh/Photo by Matt Hiscox

It was a classic pitcher's duel at Labatt Park Friday night between the London Majors and the defending Intercounty Baseball League Champion Barrie Baycats. The Baycats came away with a tight 3-1 victory in 11 innings.

The game was scoreless through nine innings with strong pitching performances from the two starting pitchers, Frank Garces for Barrie and Victor Payano for the hometown London Majors. Garces held London scoreless over eight innings on just two hits while striking out 10. The Barrie left hander was perfect through seven innings. Those two London hits came in the eighth inning off the bats of the first two hitters to face Garces in thar inning, Byron Reichstein served a bloop single over the shortstop´s head into shallow left field. Josh Niles followed Reichstein by popping up a bunt that Barrie catcher Leliis Beltran was unable to field cleanly giving London their second hit. 

The Majors could not manage to bring home Ken Sugi who ran for Reichstein or Josh Niles, keeping the gamescoreless at that point.

After Barrie scored a single run in the top of the 10th inning, Francisco Fajardo who started the

inning on second base as the extra-inning runner scored on a sacrifice fly by Ken Sugi to tie the game at 1–1 and send it to the 11th.

Victor Payano started on the mound for London looking for his third win of the season, and was

able to scatter two Barrie hits over six scoreless innings with eight strikeouts. Colby RIng relieved Payano in the seventh inning and was able to retire the Baycats in order, Ryan Beitel followed Ring with two scoreless innings. Skylar Janisse made his seventh appearance of the 2025 season, but took the loss as he gave up a single run in the 10th inning and a pair of Barrie runs in the 11th inning on a total of three hits and two strikeouts over those final two innings. Carlos Sano earned his first win of the 2025 season finishing up the game for Barrie with a

three-inning effort.

The London Majors, whose record stands at 6-4 will go on the road to finish off a three-game

weekend. They will be in Welland on Saturday for a 6:05 first pitch against the first place Jackfish. The Jackfish record is a perfect 7-0 so far in the 2025 IBL season. London will finish off the weekend with a Sunday game in Brantford with the last place Red Sox

at Arnold Anderson Stadium for a 2 p.m. start.