Majors battle and get Game 3 win

Written by Dan Haugh / Photo by Matt Hiscox

It has been said that you have to be persistent and never give up to come out ahead and win. That was exactly the approach that the London Majors took when they battled back from being behind by as many as four runs in the early innings to come away with a 10-9 victory over the Hamilton Cardinals in Game Three of their Round One Intercounty Baseball League playoff series.

London Field Manager Roop Chanderdat echoed that mentality in his post-game comments,  ̈Since just before the All-Star break we have been dealing with a lot of injuries and it has continued into the playoffs, but I have been telling the team, Next Man Up! We have heart and it showed again tonight. That is a very good Hamilton team. We found a way to win after a tough loss yesterday. Daniel Gore, Tyler Gillies and Skylar Janisse were very good in relief and we got

contributions from up and down the lineup. ̈

London led 3-1 after the first inning. The three-run first inning rally was powered by a Kaiden Cardoso RBI double scoring Gibson Krzeminski and a two-run double by Byron Reichstein that scored Cardoso and Starling Joseph. Hamilton responded with a single run in the second inning and five more runs in the top of the third inning/ They led 7-3 going into the bottom half of the third inning.

That was when the Majors showed their persistence and countered with three runs in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth to lead the Cardinals 8-7 after five innings. The lead changed hands twice from that point with Hamilton putting up a pair of runs in the sixth inning. London took back the lead at 10-9 with two runs in the bottom of the seventh.  That is where Tyler Gillies, who has recently become London's go-to relief pitcher, took over and shut down the Cardinals in the seventh and eighth innings to earn the win before handing the ball over to Skylar Janisse who pitched the ninth inning for the save.

In what has become a common occurrence throughout the 2024 regular season and now into the playoffs, Byron Reichstein and Kaiden Cardoso led their team offensively. Reichstein had three hits and three RBI while Cardoso had three hits and two RBI. Eduardo De Oleo and Tristan Osika had two hits each. Gibson Krzeminski, Victor Plaz, Starling Joseph, Brad Verhoeven and Ty Mosher had one hit each to bring the Majors hit total to 15.

The London Majors now hold a two games to one lead in the first round series, and will have an opportunity to end the series in Hamilton on Tuesday night at Bernie Arbour Memorial Stadium at 7:35 P.M. If necessary Game Five will be back at Labatt Park Wednesday night. First pitch for that game is scheduled for 7:35 P.M.