Majors' fall to Panthers

Written by Dan Haugh/Photo by Matt Hiscox

The London Majors kicked off a busy three-game weekend on Friday night ending up on the losing end of a 5-2 score against the Kitchener Panthers at Labatt Park.

The Panthers ended London's four-game winning streak on the strength of an impressive complete-game five-hit pitching performance from Jose Vasquez. After Kitchener scored a single run in each of the first two innings off London starter Jose Arias, the Majors were able to get a run back in the bottom of the third inning when Tommy Reyes-Cruz reached base on a ground-ball single through the right side of the infield.  Reyes-Cruz advanced to second on a balk and was then driven home by Drew Lawrence´s RBI single to right centre. 

London field manager Roop Chanderdat had this to say about the excellent pitching performance his team had to deal with, ¨Vasquez did a good job attacking the strike zone and keeping us off balance. He pitched a good game, and we just couldn't string together enough good at-bats or hits.¨Kitchener added single runs in the 5th,7th, and 8th innings. Nick Parsons with three hits including a home run and Raul Gonzalez and Jett Jarvis with two hits each led the Kitchener offensive attack.
The Majors' five hits came from five different players. Drew Lawrence, Kaiden Cardoso, Byron Reichstein, Gibson Krzeminski and Tommy Reyes-Cruz all contributed singles.

Jose Arias pitched well over six innings for London.  Arias was followed by Alex Springer for two innings and Braeden Ferrington closed out the 9th, Chanderdat added some thoughts about his strategy for the upcoming busy schedule. Three games in three days is a test of our depth. We have starters set for all three games. 

The next action for London is Sunday to face the Hamilton Cardinals at 1:00 P.M. after their matchup on Saturday in Guelph was rained out.