Caps-barons resume provincial final at St. Pat’s

Lead Barons 2-1 in provincial senior final, with Games 4 and 5 set for St. Pat’s this afternoon and evening

The defending champion St. John’s Capitals can wrap up another provincial baseball title with a couple of wins over the Corner Brook Barons this afternoon at St. Pat’s Ball Park.

The St. John’s Bigs Capitals can make fairly quick work of another provincial senior A baseball championship with a couple of wins over the Corner Brook Barons today at St. Pat’s Ball Park.

However, Capitals coach Sean Gulliver says while getting things done in one day would be nice, he isn’t counting on a rush job.

The Capitals, who have won the last four provincial titles and 16 of the last 17, lead the best-of-seven 2017 final 2-1 after the series opened last week at Jubilee Field in Corner Brook, where the teams exchanged 5-2 victories sandwiched around a 3-0 shutout by St. John’s.

“To go into Corner Brook and win three straight games against the Barons, no matter what we did in the recent past, is a challenge. So our goal was to come out of there with a series lead, whether that was 2-1 or 3-0.” Capitals coach Sean Gulliver

“I haven’t said anything to the guys about getting this over with on Saturday,” said Gulliver. “Listen, we had three real good games in Corner Brook and they (the Barons) played well. We were probably just a little bit better.

“But they were-well played, well-pitched, stingy games. There were only 17 runs scored in total by the teams combined in the three games.”

Gulliver is counting on more strong pitching for his side today with the return of righthanded ace Scott Goosney to the Capitals’ lineup. The Pasadena native had been the MVP of last year’s final, winning three games against the Barons, but hasn’t played so far in this series.

“He had an illness in his family that he had to tend to, and that prevented him from travelling to the west coast, but he’s going to start (the first game today),” said Gulliver, who is getting even more reinforcements with the additions of Brent Power, Steve Crouse and Sean Janes, who also didn’t play last weekend.

And if the series happens to go to Sunday, when any necessary sixth or seventh games would be played, then the Caps could also add veteran slugger Gerry Stone, who has been unavailable due to work commitments.

“To go into Corner Brook and win three straight games against the Barons, no matter what we did in the recent past, is a challenge. So our goal was to come out of there with a series lead, whether that was 2-1 or 3-0,” said Gulliver.

“So I think we’re in good shape, especially with the players we have coming back.”

Scheduled times for games both Saturday and Sunday, if it gets that far, are 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at St. Pat’s.