Majors pitching leads to series win

Written by Dan Haugh / photographer by Matt Hiscox 

The London Majors eliminated the Hamilton Cardinals from the IBL playoffs on Tuesday night in Hamilton with a 4-1 win in game 3 of their first round series and advance to a semi-final matchup with the second place Barrie Baycats.

London Majors pitching was in full playoff mode on Tuesday night in Hamilton. After games two and three were high-scoring contests, Victor Payano showed some of the magic he displayed in the first game of the series when he dominated Hamilton batters to earn the 3-2 victory on Friday night at Labatt Park..

Six tremendous innings from starting pitcher Victor Payano gave him his second win of the 2024 playoffs. Payano allowed only one run on five hits. Of the 18 outs recorded in his six innings of work 13 were strikeouts.

Daniel Gore ́s three innings in relief of Payano were equally impressive. Gore allowed one hit and held Hamilton scoreless over the final three innings to earn the save.

The second inning rally that produced London's first two runs started with a Cleveland Brownlee double driving home Byron Reichstein. The second run came when Brownlee moved to third base on a Ty Mosher single and then scored on a fielder's choice to make the score 2-0 London.

Hamilton added a single run in the bottom of the fourth inning when a Stephen Whalen single drove home Luis Bernardo who had doubled to lead off the inning.

Eduardo De Oleo stepped up in a big way in this game, He had three hits in his four plate appearances including a two-run long ball in the

 fifth inning that drove home Victor Plaz who had reached base on a lead-off single. That blow made the score 4-1 after five innings.

In total the Majors hammered out 10 hits off four Hamilton pitchers. Starter Takaki Eguchi took the loss.

Again Eduardo De Oleo led the offense with three hits including hsi two-run home run. Ty Mosher and Victor Plaz had two hits each while Starling Joseph, Cleveland Brownlee and Tristan Osika had one hit each.

The London Majors will now move on from their three games to one first round series win to meet the Barrie Baycats in a semi-final series with the winner of that series advancing to the IBL final against the winner of Welland and Guelph.

At time of writing this game recap no dates or times for the London vs. Barrie semi-final have been determined.

That information will be posted on the London Majors website as soon as it becomes official.