Chiefs still in top spot
The Welland Chiefs are still your No. 1 team as the regular season is all but wrapped up in the Niagara District Baseball Association senior men’s division.
Chiefs closed out their regular season on Friday with a 10-4 loss to the Expos and fell to 18-5 on the season, while also snapping their eight-game win streak.
The Cannons fired off a 2-0 week on the road to jump into second spot this week. First defeating the Expos 13-9 in Chippawa on Sunday and following up with a 10-5 victory against Merritton on Wednesday. Fort Erie’s third straight perfect week puts them one-and-a-half games back of the Chiefs and gives them their sixth straight win overall.
The week that started out well for Niagara Falls was spoiled by their loss to the Cannons on Sunday afternoon and they eventually rounded out their week at 15-6 overall. Expos sit two games behind the Chiefs for first place and a first-round bye in the NDBA playoffs with three games to play.
Thorns also had a 2-0 week, first giving us a taste of NDBA playoff action on Friday night with an 8-3 win over the Alliance before taking out the Falcons Juniors 6-3 Sunday afternoon at Oakes Park. Thorns improve to 13-8 and are already locked in as first round matchup with the Alliance in a three-game series that will begin once the season concludes on Aug. 20.
Aside from their loss to the Alliance, the Falcons Juniors had a productive week in their final outings of the season in senior men’s play. The Falcons finished their double-header on Sunday with a 7-4 over the Alliance. They concluded their season on Monday night against the Fantoms and ended on a positive note with an 8-5 win to finish with a 9-13 record. The Falcons two make-up games against the Chiefs and Cobras will not be replayed.
Fantoms, 2-17, and Alliance, 7-16, were both held winless this week and are firmly locked into their positions headed into the playoffs. Due to the first-round bye, the Fantoms – currently the eighth seed – will play their first round against the second seed, still to be determined.
And finally, the Cobras, 6-15; were held off the field this week as the only team not in action during a busy week in the NDBA. Cobras are scheduled for one more game before the end of the regular season as it appears their two makeup games against the Thorns will not be replayed.
ON DECK THIS WEEK
Following are the upcoming games in the Niagara District Baseball Association senior men’s division. Admission to all games is free.
Friday: Rose City Thorns at Niagara Falls Expos, 6 p.m., Oakes Park (NF); Fort Erie Cannons at St. Catharines Cobras, 7:30 p.m., George Taylor Field; Thorold Fantoms at Niagara Falls Expos, 8:30 p.m., Oakes Park (NF).
Saturday: Niagara Falls Expos at Thorold Fantoms, 7:30 p.m., McMillan Park.
Sunday: Fort Erie Cannons at Thorold Fantoms, 7:30 p.m., McMillan Park.
Cannons sound off for ten runs
The Fort Erie Cannons scored double-digit runs for the thirdstraight game and defeated the Merritton Alliance 10-5 on Wednesday night at George Taylor Field.
The Alliance dropped their final game of the regular season and have just one win in over a calendar month, which isn’t the only losing streak troubling manager Larry Collins.
“We haven’t beaten the Cannons in about four years, I think it starts to mess with your psyche,” Collins said. Merritton plays Fort Erie in the first game of the Ontario Baseball Association championships Sept. 1-4. “We’re going to give them a good game until the very end. We’re going to bring our A game and they better bring their A game too because that’s all we’ve ever done.”
Alliance committed several errors on Wednesday night behind starting pitcher Pat Topping, who was chased from the game after three innings and allowed four runs on four hits and three walks.
“We committed six errors in the game and it’s hard to win a game in this league making even two errors in a game if the other team makes none. It’s that tight,” Collins said.
Toppings was relieved by a RHP Jeff Young, who gave up six runs, seven hits and two walks to and was charged with the loss. Matt Brady would close out the game after that and was near perfect surrendering just three hits over his two innings.
Despite that, the Cannons scored early and often in this one and got contributions from nine different batters as part of their 14 hits on the night. Doing the damage offensively was Serge Gervais, 3-for-5; Royce Gooder, 2-for4; Steve Oleniuk, 1-for-4; Kris Hodges, 1-for-4; Pat Giampaolo, 1-for-4; Robin Kellar, 1-for-4; Josh Bessems, 1-for-4; Josh Jackson, 1-for-2; Austin Weaver 1-for-2 who all registered hits in the win.
“I’m anxious to finish the season, start the playoffs and concentrate on the OBAs” Gervais said after the game. The second baseman batted in two and scored once on top of his three-hit game to lead the way for the Cannons offensively. “I tried to help the team out, advance the runners and everytime I went up to bat I had runners on base. So, I set up well for the number four and five hitters behind me.”
The Cannons did settle in early behind starting pitcher Cam Hall who went five innings for the win. Hall struck out four, allowed one run, four hits and one walk and left the game with his team leading 10-1. Hall was relieved by rookie Blair McNeil and Giampaolo who were more than able to close out the game.
“Hall is trying to get primed up for the season before the playoffs… his goal was to hit 90 pitches tonight and he hit 84 in five innings so I think he was happy with that,” Cannons manager Justin Hall said. (no relation to pitcher, Hall) “We battle every game, we’re not an easy team to beat. We play good defense most nights and our starting pitching is there. We should be a tough team to beat on most nights.”
Alliance would do most of their damage against McNeil in the sixth and seventh innings. The top-three batters for the Alliance were held to just three walks and were a combined 0-for-9 in the game. Credit Trevor Catterall, 3-for-3; Mark Fusco, 2-for-4; Zack Dumont, 2-for-4; Pat Topping, 1-for-3; Ben Collins, 1-for-4; with hits for Merritton in their final tune-up game of the summer.