Chiefs improve to 2-0 against Expos
We’re in week two of the Niagara District Baseball Association senior men’s season, and the eight teams are still going head first out of the gate trying to get an early lead in the standings.
After two weeks of play, only one team remains undefeated. The Fort Erie Cannons are 2-0 following a 5-4 victory over the Rose City Thorns at home.
Rose City, the Welland Chiefs and the Niagara Falls Juniors, all 2-1; traiil Fort Erie by half a game in the standings, while the St. Catharines, 1-1; are a game back.
Rounding out the field heading into the weekend are the defending champion Niagara Falls Expos, 1-2; and the Thorold Fantoms and Merritton Alliance, both 0-2.
Chiefs rout Expos at home
In the feature game this week, two 1-1 teams went head-to-head in an early battle for positioning. It was the second of three meetings between the Expos and the Chiefs this season and their last until August.
Welland leapfrogged the Niagara Falls Expos in the standings with an 11-4 win at home Wednesday night.
Chiefs starting pitcher Matt Wintermute was solid. He pitched three innings, giving up three hits and one earned run with no walks or strikeouts. The lone blunder on the night for Wintermute was a solo home run in the first inning off the bat of Expos catcher Evan Baglieri. The southpaw got help from the Chiefs defence, who recorded all nine outs in the young pitcher’s first start of the season.
“He did a great job. He threw strikes, which is what we wanted.” Chiefs head coach, Larry Stephens said. “This is a strong, right-handed hitting team.”
“They put the ball in play. They’re a tough team to pitch against and he did a great job.”
Stephens said the Chiefs made the most of their scoring chances on walks and errors. Welland has now scored 10 runs or more in two of their three regular season games.
“We had a good first game against Niagara Falls, everything seemed to go well,” Stephens said. “The offence has been great.”
“We’ve had contributions from everybody. Top to bottom, everybody was putting the ball in play. We try to encourage the guys to cut down on the swings and the strikeouts.”
Expos starting pitcher Ryan Langdon fell victim to his pitch command early in the game, walking three of the first five batters and giving up four first-inning runs. He retired the side in order in the bottom of the second but gave up two more runs in the third.
Langdon was tagged for six earned runs, six hits, three walks and no strikeouts over three innings of work.
“These guys wont he league last year, their defensing champions,” Stephens said. “We knew they’d be tough and if somebody said that we were going to win 11-4, I would happier than you know what.”
Welland’s first three batters – Frank Barber, Zack Fernandez and Brian Lepp – did most of the damage against the Expos. They scored eight runs combined.
Lepp was the only of the three to register a hit. He finished 3-for-3 with three runs and a walk.
“I was seeing the ball well, but it was the guys behind me who were driving me in,” Lepp said. “They know I like to go away so they try to jam me inside, so I just try to keep my hands inside.”
“We all know each other, playing in this league for a long time and we all know what we’re going to do. You have to try and adjust.”
Chiefs second baseman, Ryan Dear also had a good night at the plate. He was 1-for-1 with two RBIs, two earned runs and a walk before getting subbed out in the fourth inning.
The Expos came out with a statement blast in the first, but could not figure out how to string runs together. Baglieri was the lone star of the Niagara Falls offence, batting 2-for-3 with a home run and drove in all four runs for the Expos. Nearly all their runs came in the fifth inning when they scored three off reliever Jordan Bray. A close play and an errant throw with the bases loaded scored three for the Expos on a long single by Baglieri.
In their two games so far this season, the Expos have been outscored 21-6 by the Chiefs. Their three runs per game on average is the lowest mark in a league so far this season.
Rose City defeated visiting Merritton 5-2, the Junior Falcons defeated Thorold on the road and the Expos edged the Cobras 3-2 at home in last week’s other games.