WELLAND – Welland inched closer to locking up top seed in the IBL with a 9-3 home win over Barrie Thursday night.
The first-place Jackfish (26-10) now leads the Baycats by three games with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Hogan Brown and Carlos Martinez each drove in a pair of runs in the victory. James Smibert went 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Steven Moretto, Sam Cawker, Tyler Dupuis and Gianfranco Morello all drove in a run.
Ben Abram (2-1) earned the win, allowing two runs on six hits over seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven. Deivy Mendez struck out four of five batters he faced for his ninth save.
Ryan Rijo went 2-for-5 with a solo home run for the Baycats. Starlin Rodriguez drove in two and Hayden Jaco singled three times and scored.
Jeifry Nunez (3-3) took the loss, giving up four runs on six hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out two.
Panthers walk-off Maple Leafs
KITCHENER – Yunior Ibarra’s sacrifice fly scored Raul Gonzalez in the bottom of the 10th inning of the Kitchener Panthers’ 8-7 win over Toronto on Thursday night at Jack Couch Park.
Five of the Panthers’ 12 hits were home runs. Andy Leader and Nick Parsons each connected with a runner on base, while Blake Jacklin, Elliott Curtis and Marcel Lacasse added solo blasts.
Christian Hauck started for Kitchener (23-14) and went seven innings, yielding a pair of runs on four hits with six walks and 10 strikeouts. Jordan Bahnuk (1-0) threw a scoreless 10th for the win.
Marek Deska (1-2) took the loss for Toronto, allowing an unearned run over 1.2 innings. He gave up a hit, walked one and struck out one.
Leafs’ starter Sam Green went five innings, giving up seven runs on 10 hits with a walk and four strikeouts.
Offensively, Yoichi Ishihara hit a three-run home run in the eighth as Toronto (17-17) battled back from a 7-0 deficit to send the game to extras. Jordan Castaldo had two hits and an RBI, and Justin Marra drove in the other run. James Dutton singled twice and scored.
Source
