Majors split home and home in Dramatic fashion

Written by Dan Haugh / Photo by Matt Hiscox

The London Majors gave their loyal fans plenty to cheer about at Labatt Memorial Park Friday night with a 10th inning walk-off win over the Hamilton Cardinals by a 5-4 score. 

That great fan support was not lost on field manager Roop Chanderdat, who commented after the game, “Tonight I want to shout out to our fans who stuck with us. We could hear their support. I want to thank them for being loud ̈

Travis Keys put in another solid effort on the mound for London, going 7 1/3 innings and holding Hamilton to just the four runs that they scored in a fifth inning rally. Jose Arias came on in the eighth inning to allow London an opportunity to come back with their 10th-inning heroics. Manager Chanderdat had this to say about Keys and Arias.  ̈ Keys gave us another competitive outing. He is a bulldog, and Kudos to Jose Arias. He was impressive out of the bullpen. It was a flashback of the 2022 Arias. Since moving him to the pen this season, he is throwing harder and better. ̈ Arias struck out six Hamilton batters in his 2 2/3 innings of relief to earn his third win of the 2025 season. Fernando Rodney took the loss for Hamilton. 

The Majors scored their five runs on a total of 10 hits. The first three hitters in the batting order, Kyle Maves, Francisco Fajardo and Eduardo De Oleo had two hits each, and Roop Chanderdat explained his thinking in the move he made at the top of the batting order...  ̈ I wanted to take some pressure off Toby Simmons at the top of the order. I inserted Kyle Maves in that spot, and he did a heck of a job tonight, hitting in the leadoff spot. He was a spark plug. He is the coach of a minor baseball team, so with that season soon wrapping up, Maves will be available to us on a regular basis. ̈ Byron Reichstein, Brad Verhoeven, Ken Sugi and Josh Niles had one hit each. Josh Niles had the huge RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning that scored Eduardo De Oleo and sent the London faithful fans home with something to celebrate.

 ̈Anyone can play hero, and tonight it was Josh Niles who got the winning shot and a key sacrifice bunt early in the game. ̈ the Majors Field manager added after the game.  ̈It was a great win for us in a back-to-back situation. This team never quits. I have said it a lot. We are a resilient group. ̈

The London Majors are now alone in third place in league standings with an 18-11 record. They are 2.5 games ahead of the Chatham-Kent Barnstormers, whom they face next on Tuesday night at Fergie Jenkins Field. Next home action will be Friday, July 25th, when the Kitchener Panthers visit Labatt Memorial Park for a 7:35 start.