Rose City Thorns claimed the top spot this week

Week four has open and closed in the Niagara District Baseball Association senior men’s league.

In the most action-packed week of baseball to date, most everyone shifted in the standings. Even as week five begins, there’s still no clear indication of who could run away with the pennant.

A tight race for first place means an exciting month of ball ahead, but first, let’s look back on the week that was.

The Rose City Thorns claimed the top spot this week with two wins at home. Their 7-1 victory over the St. Catharines Cobras on Sunday night made them the first team to get to 10 points this season. Elsewhere, the Thorns 3-2 win over the Niagara Falls Expos on Friday proved that this team may be for real. If they can eek out a win against the defending champions, they may have enough to hang with the big boys all season.

The Expos, the Fort Erie Cannons and the Welland Chiefs all benefitted from a win this week, albeit the former was up and down. The trio all have four wins, with only the gamesplayed column dividing them in the standings.

Merritton had a rebound week. They lost two of three this week but seem to be coming around after missing key practice dates early in the season. A loss to both the Chiefs and Expos hurts, but their 5-4 win over the St. Catharines Cobras came down to the wire and showed the character of this club.

Tough week for the Cobras, who are now 1-5. They dropped a tight game against Merritton on Saturday, got no run support in their Sunday evening tilt against the Thorns and then got blasted by the Cannons 13-1 on Wednesday. St. Catharines is trending in the wrong direction and sits in second last through four weeks of play.

Niagara Falls Falcons Juniors and Thorold Fantoms were rained out in their only game of the week.

Our feature-game this week comes from Welland Stadium in a Wednesday night bout between the Merritton Alliance and the Welland Chiefs. Merritton was looking to draw even with the Chiefs at 3-3, but the home team had a different idea, as the Chiefs looked to inch closer to the top spot in the division The baseball gods are giving and sometimes very cruel.

The Welland Chiefs received a gift in the form of a 7-2 win over the Merritton Alliance. Chiefs starter Eric Conlon threw a gem. He was dialed in through six innings with two earned runs, seven hits, six strikeouts and no walks. Conlon was the beneficiary of on-target command and a tremendous defense in the field.

“There were some great plays at the end of the game,” Conlon said. “It’s great to in there and pitch and know that even if you don’t have your best stuff you’re still going to get the outs.”

Chiefs manager, Larry Stephens praised his defense after the game for their ability to go beyond expectations.

“You want them to make the fundamental plays, the basic plays. But, when they can come up with gems like that it’s a real bonus,” Stephens said. “Like they say, pitching and defense wins baseball games and we had them both going tonight.”

It was in the top of the third when Alliance centerfielder, Ben Collins stepped in and delivered a one-out single, which started a four-hit, tworun inning for the Alliance. Conlon was air-tight after the that as he put away 10 of his last 11 batters to close out his quality start.

Then, with a 2-0 lead headed into the bottom of the third, a ray of sunshine shone on Merritton starter, Kyle Parris on the mound at Welland Stadium. Instead of a blessing, the baseball gods decided to wreak havoc on the Merritton gloves behind him, creating opportunities and chasing the right-hander from the game after four innings.

“We just booted the ball a few times and it was costly,” Alliance manager, Larry Collins said. “It was only (Parris’) second appearance. He pitched well and if we didn’t kick the ball around so much, he could have had a lot better outcome, I think. But for the most part he pitched really well and he’s probably right up there as a number one guy.”

Parris’ line is not indicative of what a losing pitcher looks like. Pencil him in for one earned run, three hits, one walk and six strikeouts over four innings. At 2-4 Merritton needs to begin to gel. They host the first-place Thorns on Friday night in what should be considered a make-or-break game for this team.

The win moves Welland to 4-2 on the season. They’re leading the league in runs for and sit just one game back of the Rose City Thorns for first place. This is their second consecutive game in which they’ve allowed just two runs. However, those game have been played against two of the bottom three teams offensively.

They will look for their third win in a row on Tuesday night in Thorold against the last-place Fantoms.