Majors Take a Thriller Over the Royals

Written by Dan Haugh / Photo by Isaiah Bergsma

Relying on strong pitching and timely hitting the London Majors got back in the win column with a 2-1 victory over the Guelph Royals at Labatt Memorial Park on Friday night.
“It was a great pitchers duel between Victor Payano and Guelph starter Jacob Kush” London field manager Roop Chanderdat commented, ̈ We knew coming into this game that we had to play good defence and capitalize on their mistakes.. We played a good defensive game with zero errors. ̈

After Guelph took a 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth inning on a J, D. Williams RBI single, the Majors tied the score in the bottom of the sixth and scored again in the bottom of the seventh inning to take a 2-1 lead. In the sixth inning rally Tucker Zdunich blasted a two-out pitch off the right centre field wall and then came in to score on a key single by Josh Niles.

More comments from manager Chanderdat, ”We got timely hits including the big double by Tucker Zdunich who then scored our first run on a key two-out single by Josh Niles. ̈

The go ahead run and eventual winning run for the Majors came in the seventh inning when Francisco Fajardo scored on a wild pitch..

Roop Chanderdat had more to say about the strong pitching that his team got, ̈ ̈Payano gave us a big outing to start the weekend and Skylar Janisse was good to close it out. ̈ ̈

Victor Payano went eight strong innings allowing just the one Guelph run on five hits while striking out eight Royals batters for his third win of the season. Skylar Janisse finished up in relief with a scoreless ninth inning to earn his fifth save of the 2025 season.

London ́s eight hits came from Byron Reichstein with a double and a single. Tucker Zdunich had a double. Singles by Toby Simmons, Francisco Fajardo, Josh Niles. Brad Verhoeven, and Dre Amaral rounded out the eight hit attack. .
The Majors who are tied for second place with the Chatham-Kent Barnstormers with a record of 14-8 will be travelling to Barrie on Saturday afternoon to take on the Barrie Baycats and then on to Hamilton on Sunday afternoon to face the Hamilton Cardinals to finish off their busy three-game weekend.