Rally falls short
Fawcetts hold 2-2 record after two days at championship.
Quebec’s Joe McCleary tagged Seth Hood out at home plate Wednesday night, killing a Charlottetown John Brown Grille Fawcetts’ rally at Central Field.
The Fawcetts couldn’t recover, losing 4-1. Both teams are now 22 at the Canadian senior men’s fast pitch championship entering today’s final games of roundrobin play.
Trailing 3-0 in the top of the fourth inning the Fawcetts were threatening with runners on second and third and no out. Cleanup hitter Andy Skelton grounded out to the shortstop and Hood got thrown out at the plate for a 6-3-2 double play.
Fawcetts’ third base coach Doug Hines said the contact play was on, provided the ball was hit deep in the infield.
“I’ll take responsibility for that,” Hines said. “We had some big hitters up there, so he probably should have stayed at third.”
The Fawcetts wouldn’t get another hit until Jeff Ellsworth hit a solo home run to start the seventh inning.
“We’re just going to keep a short memory here, come back tomorrow and try and win a couple of games,” Hines said.
Quebec opened the scoring in the first inning when McCleary dropped a bunt down the third base line with the bases juiced and two outs.
McCleary said he discussed the play with leadoff man Mathieu Roy, who he called likely the fastest player in the tournament, before the inning.
“I told him if the third baseman is deep, get ready I might try it.”
McCleary fouled the first attempt off, but said he saw third baseman Chris Craig back up, giving him the idea to try it again.
“If I got it down, I knew I’d get to first because they weren’t expecting it. Thankfully it worked out in our favour,” McCleary said.
It gave Quebec confidence and Charlottetown wasn’t able to answer.
“In this tournament, no matter who you play, if you don’t score early then it gives the other team momentum and that’s what happened tonight,” Ellsworth said.
“It falls back on all the hitters on the team, we just didn’t do the job at the plate tonight.”
Quebec added two runs in the second and pitcher Joran Graham settled in with a 3-0 lead.
“Joran threw a hell of a game, probably the best game he’s thrown this year,” McCleary said.
Graham struck out seven in going the distance for the win.
Mitch Hardy gave up three runs on two hits and four walks in 1 2/3 innings in taking the loss. Skelton allowed a run on two hits in 4 1/3 innings of relief.
“We didn’t give Mitch much help tonight. He deserved a better fate than that,” Hines said. “That’s on us, but we’re going to bounce back tomorrow.”
The Fawcetts made it known they didn’t agree with many of the calls of the home plate umpire during the contest.
“We thought Mitch might have been getting squeezed,” Hines said. “They’re calling the balls and strikes and we have to live with that, no matter what it is. We just didn’t adjust.”
Matt Greer was 2-for-2 and scored twice in pacing Quebec’s offence while Jean-Pierre Savard had an RBI double and Samuel Labrecque doubled and scored.
Ellsworth had two hits for the host while Jamie MacDonald doubled to start the fourthinning rally and Skelton singled in the seventh.
Earlier Wednesday, the Fawcetts edged the Saskatoon Diamondbacks 2-1 in eight innings.
The Fawcetts play the East Hants Mastodons from Nova Scotia at 2 p.m. and Kelly’s Pub from St. John’s, N.L., at 6:30 p.m.