Four-run 9th leads Toronto over Royals 4-1

TORONTO, Ont. - It took the Toronto Maple Leafs until the bottom of the ninth to solve the Guelph pitching staff Sunday afternoon at the newly named Dominico Field. With the score tied 1-1 with two in the bottom of the ninth, the Leafs Tony Lewis became the hero as he belted a three-run homer off Guelph reliever Adam Reynolds for the 4-1 victory. The Leafs improve to (1-1) while Guelph falls to (0-2).

Box Score

Other IBL Scores
Ottawa 4, Hamilton 3
London 7, Kitchener 5

6 games rained out Saturday

The weather has not been on our side so far this weekend as all six senior baseball games scheduled for Saturday, May 8th were rained out with make up dates to be announced.

Games this weekend

Games scheduled for this weekend

COMBL
May 7 - 7:45pm - Erindale @ Etobicoke (RAINED OUT)
May 8 - 1:00pm - Niagara @ Milton (RAINED OUT)
May 8 - 1:00pm - Etobicoke @ Brampton (RAINED OUT)
May 9 - 7:30pm - Burlington @ Glanbrook

CAN-AM
May 9 - 1:00pm - Tecumseh Jrs. vs. Tecumseh Thunder (Lacasse Park)
May 9 - 5:30pm - W.A.A. vs. Windsor Stars (Cullen Field)
May 9 - 5:30pm - Troy Jet Box vs. Windsor Selects (Juniors) (Soulliere Field)

INTERCOUNTY BASEBALL LEAGUE
May 7 - 7:30 pm - London at Hamilton - (RAINED OUT)
May 8 - 2:00 pm - Kitchener at Barrie - (RAINED OUT)
May 8 - 2:00 pm - Toronto at Brantford - (RAINED OUT)
May 8 - 2:00 pm - Ottawa at Guelph - (RAINED OUT)
May 8 - 2:00 pm - Hamilton at Mississauga - (RAINED OUT)
May 9 - 2:00 pm - Ottawa at Hamilton
May 9 - 2:00 pm - London at Kitchener
May 9 - 2:00 pm - Guelph at Toronto

Delfino's homer leads Red Sox past Guelph 4-1

GUELPH, Ont. - The two-time defending Intercounty Baseball League Champion Brantford Red Sox opened their 2010 IBL season with a 4-1 road victory over the Guelph Royals at Hastings Stadium Tuesday night.

"It was a good overall game for us tonight to open the season," said Brantford field manager Adam Clarke. "We looked very good defensively tonight. Late in the game the key part of our lineup was able to manufacture a couple runs for insurance."

Guelph's Ryan Hart and Brantford's Scott Robinson got the nod on the hill on opening night as they went head-to-head. Hart (0-1) allowed two runs on three hits over five innings of work while Robinson (1-0) gave up one run (unearned) on four hits over six complete while striking out five.

Just four batters in, Brantford veteran Lee Delfino put his team on the board as he belted a two-run homer scoring Josh McCurdy to take a 2-0 lead after one half inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, Guelph player/coach Kevin Hinton would make it a 2-1 game with a sacrifice fly to centerfield scoring Jeremy Ware.

In the final two innings the Red Sox would add to their lead. In the eighth, Guelph's Frankie Hare would make a throwing error from third scoring Tyler Brunell from second. In the ninth, Josh McCurdy hit a sacrifice fly to right scoring Al Stephens to put Brantford up 4-1.

In the bottom of the ninth, Brantford would go to the best closer in the game in 2009 IBL playoff MVP Stefan Strecker. He would close the Royals down on five pitches, all strikes, with two groundouts and a fly ball to second base for his first save of the season.

Inside the Numbers... Lee Delfino is one hit shy of 200 in a Red Sox uniform.

Teams      1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R H E
Brantford  2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 - 4 6 1
Guelph     0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 4 3

Top Hitters
Brantford                                Guelph
Al Stephens (1-for-4, 2B, 1 run)         Frankie Hare (1-for-3)
Lee Delfino (1-for-4, 2-run HR, 2 RBI)   G. McCallum (1-for-3)
Tyler Brunell (1-for-5, 2B, 1 run)

Pitching
Winning Pitcher - Scott Robinson (BRA) (6.0 IP, 1R, 0ER, 4H, 5K, 1BB)
Losing Pitcher  - Ryan Hart (GUE) (5.0 IP, 2R, 2ER, 3H, 0K, 3BB)
Save            - Stefan Strecker (BRA) (1 IP, 0R, 0H, 0K, 0BB)

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Niagara Metros (COMBL)

2009 Record: 19-12 (Johnson Division Champions)

Overall Finish: 3rd

Head Coach: Kerry Hedden

General Manager: Mark Walters

Website: metrosbaseball.ca

Top Returnees

Dustin Turner - RHP, St. Catharines - (59 IP, 84 K, 3-5, 2.75 ERA)

Brian Essery - RHP, St. Catharines - (46 IP, 30 K, 2-2, 2.93 ERA)

Steve Baldinelli - RHP, OF, Niagara Falls - (41 IP, 40 K, 4-1, 2.63 ERA)
(.343 AVG., 5 HR, 27 RBI, 16 SB)
Andrew Sorochan - OF, Newmarket - (.317 AVG., 2 HR, 32 RBI, 3 SB)
Joe Roach - OF, Crystal Beach - (.339 AVG., 3 HR, 16 RBI, 12 SB)
Tim Collins - SS, Peterborough - (.282 AVG., 10 RBI, 9 SB)

Key Losses

Ian Horner - LHP, St. Catharines, Ont. - (47 IP, 36 K, 4-2, 2.30 ERA)
Dan Estey - RHP, Moncton, N.B., - (49 IP, 28 K, 2-4, 3.12 ERA)
Eric DeBoer - RHP, Niagara-OT-Lake, Ont., - (19 IP, 20 K, 5 SVs, 2.37 ERA)
Justin Czorny - OF, Stoney Creek, Ont. - (.371 AVG., 3 HR, 34 RBI, 6 SB)
Rocco Spano - OF, Mississauga, Ont. - (.297 AVG, 2 HR, 22 RBI, 1 SB)

Brad Namtzu - 2B, St. Catharines, Ont. - (.206, 11 RBI, 10 SB)

Top Newcomers

Jason Ermers - LHP, Welland, Ont. - (Austrian Professional League 2009)
Geoff Strong - RHP, Welland, Ont. - (NCAA D1 - Niagara University 2009)
Mike Czerwieniec - LHP, OF, Maidstone, Ont. - (Glanbrook Grizzlies 2009)
Dustin Wiley - C, 1B, Windsor, Ont. - (Windsor Stars 2009)
Evan Baglieri - C, Inf., Niagara Falls, Ont. - (NJCAA D3 - Niagara County C.C. 2010)
Matt Spillman - 2B, SS, Welland, Ont. - (NAIA D1 - Walsh University 2010)

Baycats Lewis named "Extra Innings" Player of the Week

Name: Steve Lewis
Team: Barrie Baycats (IBL)
Position: OF
Hometown: Markham, Ont.

Weekly Honours... The first "Extra Innings" Senior Baseball Player of the Week goes to Steve Lewis of the Barrie Baycats. In the opening game of the 2010 IBL season, Lewis had a big day going 3-for-4 (.750) with two RBI and two stolen bases. In the top of the ninth, Lewis drove in the game-winning run with a ninth inning single to cap a four-run rally as the Baycats edged the Toronto Maple Leafs 11-10 in a wild season opener.

In 2009 with Barrie, Lewis batted .300 (15-for-56) with seven RBI during the regular season. In the playoffs, he led the team with a .339 average (20-for-59) while registering three doubles one triple and five RBI.

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The COBA Major League opens their 2010 season this weekend with four games on hand. The league opener takes place Friday, May 7 when the Erindale Cardinals take on the Etobicke Rangers at 7:45pm.

Upcoming Games
May 7 - 7:45pm - Erindale @ Etobicoke
May 8 - 1:00pm - Niagara @ Milton
May 8 - 1:00pm - Etobiocoke @ Brampton
May 9 - 7:30pm - Burlington @ Glanbrook

Windsor Jr. Selects down Thunder 11-9 in Can-Am opener

The Can-Am League opened its 2010 season on Sunday, May 2 where the Windsor Junior Selects defeated the Tecumseh Thunder by the score of 11-9.

The league consists of six teams; Windsor Stars, Troy Jet Box, Tecumseh Thunder, Windsor Junior Selects, Windsor AA & Tecumseh Juniors. The league will feature a 30 game schedule with a tournament style play-off to be held July 23-25.

Can-Am Results
May 2 - Windsor Jr. Selects 11, Tecumseh Thunder 9

Upcoming Games
May 5 - 6:00pm - W.A.A. vs. Tecumseh Jrs. (Soulliere Field)
May 5 - 7:00pm - Troy Jet Box vs. Windsor Stars (Cullen Field)
May 9 - 1:00pm - Tecumseh Jrs. vs. Tecumseh Thunder (Lacasse Park)
May 9 - 5:30pm - W.A.A. vs. Windsor Stars (Cullen Field)
May 9 - 5:30pm - Troy Jet Box vs. Windsor Selects (Juniors) (Soulliere Field)

Baycats rally to defeat Toronto 11-10

TORONTO, Ont. - The Barrie Baycats (1-0) opened the 2010 Intercounty Baseball League season with an 11-10 road victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs (0-1) Sunday afternoon. Trailing 10-7 at the end of eight complete, the Baycats answered with four runs in the top of the ninth for the win.

IBL Week One
Sat. May 1, Brantford at Guelph - (rescheduled to May 4)
Sun. May 2, London at Hamilton - rained out
Sun. May 2, Barrie 11 at Toronto 10
Tue. May 4, Brantford at Guelph - 7:30 pm

Royals and Red Sox rescheduled for May 4th

The Guelph Royals will host the defending IBL Champion Brantford Red Sox on Tuesday, May 4th at 7:30 pm at Hastings Stadium. This is a make up game which was originally slated for Saturday May 1st.

Royals Game Day Tickets (Purchased at the gate)
Adults - $6

Seniors & Students - $4

Children Under 5 Free

Special Tuesday Home Game Promotion

$20 Tuesday

5 Tickets for $20

26 degrees and sunny in Hamilton, No Game

I was very disappointed to show up at the Intercounty Baseball League game today in Hamilton with my family from St. Catharines to see there was no game. When we arrived at 1:45 pm it was 26 and sunny, one of the best days of the spring, and despite the poor weather network information regarding today, the league has to do a better job of alerting fans about cancellations/rain outs.

I talked to the groundskeeper at the park and he said the game was cancelled at 9:30am and not one website (Hamilton, London or the IBL) had that information available to fans. When I got home at 3:30 Hamilton finally had rained out on the schedule portion of their site.

The IBL, the top canadian baseball league in Canada, always say they suffer in promotions and media coverage as a whole. When poor communication like this happens it is no wonder it suffers.

I will continue to cover senior ontario baseball on my blog, but with the way of the world with technology, cancellations like this have to be immediately posted to the web so fans can make necessary changes to their day.

There are a few teams in the league that do a great job daily in running a strong community based team which shows in their coverage, marketing and game attendance. The others have to learn from them to make the entire league an overall success.

Intercounty opener rained out, two games Sunday

The 2010 Intercounty Baseball League regular season opener between the defending IBL champion Brantford Red Sox and Guelph Royals was cancelled due to rain Saturday afternoon in Guelph. The game will be rescheduled at a later date.

There are two games scheduled for Sunday, May 2nd when the Toronto Maple Leafs host the 2009 IBL finalist Barrie Baycats, while the London Majors play their first game in Hamilton against the Thunderbirds. Both games are scheduled for 2pm.

IBL Week One
Sat. May 1, Brantford at Guelph - (postponed)
Sun. May 2, London at Hamilton - 2:00 pm
Sun. May 2, Barrie at Toronto - 2:00 pm