Majors win important game

Photos by Matt Hiscox & Cole Wilton 

The Intercounty Baseball season is winding down with only a handful of games remaining.

If Tuesday night's game at Hastings Stadium is any indication of what IBL fans can expect in the last days of the season and moving into the playoffs it looks like there is a lot of excitement ahead.

The London Majors and the Guelph Royals went to extra innings in a game that will go a long way in determining playoff matchups.

The Majors came out on top by scoring two runs in the top of the 10th inning to win 6-4 and put themselves two full games ahead of Guelph in third place and one game behind second place Barrie Baycats.

The game was close throughout. Guelph scored one run in the first inning only to have London tie the score in the second inning. London scored a pair of runs in the top of the third inning to lead 3-1, but Guelph scored two runs of their own to knot the score at 3-3. Both teams scored a single run in the sixth inning to make the score 4-4. The score remained that way until extra innings when Eduardo De Oleo delivered a two RBI single up the middle driving in Victor Plaz and Charlie Bowman to make the score 6-4.

Once again Kaiden Cardoso and Eduardo De Oleo led the London offense. Cardoso went 3-for-4 at the dish with one RBI and a run scored, while De Oleo had two singles and three RBI.

Victor Plaz, Drew Lawrence, Cleveland Brownlee, Starling Joseph, and Jagan Chanderdat all had one hit.

Starling Janisse earned the win by shutting down the Royals in the eighth and ninth innings. Jaryd Lund picked up the save striking out two Royals batters in a scoreless 10th inning,

The defending champion Welland Jackfish have clinched first place in the IBL standings, but second, third and fourth place in the standings could very likely be undecided until Sunday August 18th, the final day of the season.

The Majors and Royals will still have a lot to say about how the playoff matchups look as they meet each other two more times before the end of the season on Sunday. Friday night at Labatt Park in London and then right back to Hastings Stadium in Guelph on Saturday night.