Expos’ losing skid reaches four games
The Sherbrooke Expos had a rough weekend in the Ligue de Baseball Majeur du Québec (LBMQ), losing three games in three days, and pushing their losing streak to four games.
The Expos took on the Saintjean-sur-richelieu Pirates on Friday evening, the last undefeated team in the league. Sherbrooke ended up losing a hard-fought game 8-5 at Stade Richard-lafontaine. The Pirates were the first team to get on the board.
According to a press release, the run came in the bottom of third inning, off a double from François Lafrenière. The Pirates followed that up with a two-run home run courtesy of Nicolas Loiseau. The Expos, however, rallied back in the fifth inning.
After several errors from Pirates’ pitchers DJ Depiero and Alexandre Gauthier, Expos’ Jonathan Raymond, Kyle Hazel, Corentin Boucher and Germin Lopez all contributed on the score board. Saint-jean-sur-richelieu bounced back in the sixth inning, though, to take the win.
The Expos offence fizzled out the following afternoon when they returned home on Saturday to face the Montreal Jets Legend at Amedée Roy Stadium. This time it was an 8-1 loss to a divisional rival. Montreal scored all of their runs in the sixth inning.
Former Expos’ star Moises Perez brought in two runs after he knocked a long home run over the left field mound. Vincent Dion hit a tworun double later in the inning, and then Sherbrooke collapsed on defense, committing several errors to conclude the game.
Another former Sherbrooke player, Samuel Ouellet, finished the game from the pitchers’ mound for the Jets. With the bases loaded, Ouellet struck out Expos’ standout Nelson Ercia Jr to secure the victory. Sherbrooke’s woes continued on Sunday afternoon.
Sherbrooke’s woes continued on Sunday afternoon, where they were no match for the visiting powerhouse Thetford Mines Blue Sox. There could not stop LBMQ legend Michel Simard. The 39-year-old pitcher allowed only two runs en route to a 7-2 win over the Expos.
Simard only allowed six hits and struck out 10 batters to earn his third win of the season. The Blue Sox came back down 2-0 at the bottom of the first inning thanks to Renaud Desjardins, who took advantage of a missed throw to home plate by Expos’ pitcher Samuel Greene.
The Blue Sox added three more runs in the third inning, and pulled away in the sixth inning after a tworun home run from Jets veteran Stephane Pouliot. Thetford Mines finished with 10 hits compared to Sherbrooke’s six — Ismaël Pena and Christophe Jutras had two hits each.
The Expos are back in action next Friday evening to face Acton Vale, where they hope to get back in the win column before falling too far behind their competition. They also have another match on Sunday afternoon against Shawinigan.