Sox Walk It Off For The Second Straight Week

by B. Young

With one-third of the 30 game IBL regular season remaining, the Brantford Red Sox need to string together some wins if they want to improve their position heading into the playoffs. They hoped to start that on Friday night when the Barrie Baycats came to town.

The game shaped up as many of Brantford's have this season. Red Sox jumped to an early lead, scoring 4 in the bottom of the 1st inning. Brantford the immediately gave those 4 runs back in the 2nd inning and the two teams were back to scratch, tied 4-4. The deadlock remained in the 7th inning when Brantford managed to put 2 runners on base, but left them stranded. Same scenario played out in the 8th for the Sox, with another pair of stranded runners. One more stranded Brantford runner in the 9th and this game headed to extra innings with the Sox and Baycats tied 4-4.

Things looked bleak for the Sox in the 10th with Barrie capitalizing on the new extra innings rule, scoring 2 on a passed ball and a sacrifice fly. But Brantford once again showed their resiliency this season, always able to battle back in the close games, and matched Barrie with 2 runs in the bottom of the 10th. The game was sent to the 11th inning tied 6-6.

You just had a feeling that Brantford's hard work would pay off and the Sox would not be denied on this night. After holding the Baycats scoreless in the top of the 11th, an eerie familiar scene played out. With Jon Dziomba starting the inning as Brantford's runner on 2nd, Gianfranco Morello came to the plate. Last Friday night Gio had the game winning hit in the bottom of the 9th to walk off the Maple Leafs. This Friday he once again delivered, blasting a shot into right field and bringing in the winning run. Brantford wins 7-6 in their second consecutive Friday night walkoff.

Mackenzie Major delivered 6 solid innings in his first start in Brantford, allowing just 3 earned runs. Nik Cardinal went 2 innings in his second appearance for the Sox, maintaining his 0.00 ERA while allowing just 1 hit. And is what has become an IBL Ohtani-esque story, infielder Jason Pineda moved from third base to the mound and delivered 3 innings of relief, surrendering just 1 earned run on 1 hit, and earning his now team-leading second win.

On offence, Pineda also had 2 hits and 1 run scored. A heating up Liam Sutherland followed up on his 2 home run performance on Thursday night with 2 hits, 2 RBIs and a run scored. Colton Fountain also had a pair of hits, 2 runs and an RBI. And Morello delivered the game winning hit and RBI for the second straight Friday.

Unfortunately, Brantford now loses Jesse Fishbaum and Colton Fountain for the remainder of the regular season due to school commitments. Both players have been outstanding contributors on and off the field, and we hope to see them back in a Red Sox uniform down the road.

After a well-deserved day off Saturday, Brantford heads into a 5 games in 6 days stretch. The Red Sox kick it off by heading to the friendly confines of Christie Pits to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs Sunday at 2pm.

Brantford is at home next on Wednesday August 25 hosting the Welland Jackfish. Then on Friday August 27 we welcome Brantford Olympian Erika Polidori to Arnold Anderson Stadium to throw out the first pitch before our game vs. the Hamilton Cardinals. Advance tickets are available at brantfordredsox.com/tickets

Sox Walk It Off For The Second Straight Week

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