Majors take the first exhibition game of 2024

Written by Dan Haugh, Photo by Matt Hiscox

The London Majors welcomed baseball back to London’s Historic Labatt Park on May 4th with a 5-1 exhibition victory over the Hamilton Cardinals on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. London opened the scoring in the bottom of the first inning when 14-year veteran Cleveland Brownlee singled home Gibson Krzeminski who had reached base on a Hamiton error.

The Majors stretched their lead to 3-0 with a pair of runs in the second inning. Victor Plaz led off the inning with a solo home run to left field. Later in the inning Andrew Lawrence singled and was driven in by Gibson Krzeminski’s RBI double. Single runs were tacked on in the bottom of the sixth inning on Kaiden Cordoso’s solo home run to right field and in the bottom of the seventh inning when Brad Verhoeven doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Charlie Bowman. Starling Joseph contributed two singles and Eduardo De Oleo also had a base hit for the Majors' attack. 

Daniel Gore got the start on the mound for London. After setting down the Cardinals in order in the top of the first inning Gore ran into a little bit of trouble in the second inning when the first two Hamilton hitters, Dennis Del Baning and Luis Bernardo each reached base on consecutive singles. Gore was bailed out when he got the next batter to ground into a tailor-made 4-6-3 double play and then recorded the third out on a ground out to shortstop Tommy Reyes-Cruz.

The Majors used five pitchers on the afternoon, Daniel Gore, Travis Keyes, Jonathan Henry, Pedro De Los Santos, and Skylar Janisse who collectively gave up only one run on seven Hamilton Cardinals hits and one Majors’ error.

The London Majors are back in action on Sunday, May 5th in another exhibition game This time against the Brantford Red Sox. The 105th Intercounty Baseball League kicks off on Mother's Day,  May 12th when the London Majors travel to Christie Pitts to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs. The first Majors’ home game is Friday, May 17th at Labatt Park where their opponents will be the Welland Jackfish.

About the London Majors

The London Majors are a proud member of the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), the top-level summer league in Canada. Established in 1919, the IBL boasts ex-professional and elite NCAA college baseball players. The Majors’ most recent success was winning back-to-back league titles in 2021 and 2022. The team plays at historic Labatt Memorial Park, the world’s oldest continually operating baseball grounds. For more information, visit www.londonmajors.com or follow the Majors on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok at @Londonmajors