Took extras but Majors take 3rd place

Written by Dan Haugh/Photo by Matt Hiscox

Wednesday night at Labatt Park the London Majors and Guelph Royals took the final game of the IBL regular season to extra innings before Drew Lawrence ́s walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning gave London a 4-3 win, securing their hold on third place in the IBL standings.

With the Wednesday night result, the 2024 Intercounty Baseball League playoff pairings are set. Let the playoffs begin!

Defending champion Welland Jackfish finished in first place in the IBL standings and will take on the eighth-place Kitchener Panthers in a best-of-five series that begins Thursday night in Welland. The second-place Barrie Baycats get the seventh-place Toronto Maple Leafs as their first-round opponent. London Majors finished in third place with the extra-inning victory over the Royals, and they will start their first-round series against the Hamilton Cardinals on Friday night at Labatt Park. The fourth-place Guelph Royals and the fifth-place Chatham-Kent Barnstormers are the final playoff combination.

In their Wednesday night triumph over Guelph, the Majors scored a run in the bottom of the first inning for a 1-0 lead. The Royals scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh inning. London drew even with a run in the eighth inning. The Majors did not lead again in the game until the two-run rally in the bottom of the 12th inning. London used four pitchers in the game in an effort to save arms for a busy playoff weekend.

Alex Springer started the game on the hill for London and went seven resilient innings. Springer gave up two runs on five hits while striking out eight Guelph batters including veteran Josh Garton who went down swinging twice in his first two at-bats. Daniel Gore, Jaryd Lund, and Tyler Gillies followed in relief of Springer Gillies earned the win.

The Majors were only able to manage six hits off four Guelph pitchers. Three of those six hits were given up by reliever Brandon Deans who took the loss. Gibson Krzeminski had an RBI double to tie the score in the 12th inning and a triple in the first inning. Drew Lawrence also had two hits. The most important of those two hits was his walk-off single in the 12th inning, Cleveland Brownlee and Eduardo De Oleo had one hit each. 

The playoffs will be in full swing for the London Majors this weekend as they take on the Hamilton Cardinals for three straight days, starting Friday night at Labatt Park for a 7:35 first pitch. The two teams will encounter each other at Bernie Arbour Memorial Stadium in Hamilton on Saturday evening before finishing the busy weekend on Sunday afternoon at Labatt Park, first pitch for that tilt will be 4:05 P.M.