No love lost
Truro losses give Sooners the upper hand as series shifts to Sydney
The Bearcats and Sydney Sooners wrapped up the first two games of their semifinal series in Truro on the weekend, with Saturday’s encounter getting tense at times.
The Truro Bearcats make the trip to Cape Breton this weekend with a daunting task ahead, to say the least.
The Bearcats trail the Sydney Sooners 2-0 in their best-of-five Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League semifinal after two home losses at the TAAC Grounds on the weekend. The remaining games in the series are all scheduled for Sydney, opening Friday night and continuing Saturday with a doubleheader, as needed.
The Bearcats stayed with the pennant-winning Sooners throughout most of Friday night’s contest until a four-run eighth put the game away for Sydney and they went on to an 8-5 victory.
Saturday, in a mercy-rule shortened game two, the Sooners cruised to a 13-2 victory over the Bearcats.
During the game Sunday, bad blood boiled up between the clubs. Truro shortstop Jeff Chisholm and Sooners right fielder Mike Tobin were ejected after an exchange between the two. Truro stopped action at one point and indicated they were playing the remainder of the game under protest, though it wasn’t clear what their grounds were. Details are expected at the first of the week.
Saturday, Truro got out to a good start when John Chapman blasted one over the left-centre field fence in the bottom of the first to put the Bearcats ahead 1-0.
Sydney tied it when Chris Farrow reached on an error, stole second and advanced to third on a ground out, before scoring on a wild pitch to make it 1-1.
The Sooners took control of the game with four runs in the fourth inning, and added four more in each of the fifth and sixth inning.
Truro’s other run came in the bottom of the fourth when Chapman doubled and Jason Smith, batting for the ejected Chisholm, singled. It was close at the plate but Chapman went in hard to score and make it 5-2.
The Sooners out-hit the Bearcats 15-5. Kenny Long went the seven innings to take the win on the mound for Sydney while Smith took the loss for Truro. Adam MacAloney and Shawn Mullins had the other hits for the Bearcats, both singles.
Sooners 8 Bearcats 5 Truro got out to a good start Friday, plating two runs in the bottom of the first. Adam Lombard singled to get things going and Chapman was hit by a pitch. After Chisholm walked to load the bases, Dan Bates doubled to the gap to score Lombard and Chapman, however, Chisholm was thrown out at the plate.
The Sooners got their sticks going in the top of the second. With two out, Sean Ferguson doubled and Johnny MacLeod singled to bring in Ferguson. Then, Justin Brewer showed some opposite field power blasting one over the right field fence making it 3-2 in Sydney’s favour.
Jason Smith led off the second for the Bearcats and took Sydney pitcher Sheldon MacDonald’s first pitch over the left-centre field fence to tie it at three.
Sydney scored again in the third to make it 4-3 but the Bearcats responded in their half of the fourth, getting a boost from the bottom of thee order. After Bates got aboard on an error, number-8 in the order, Shawn Mullins, singled to bring Bates in and tie the game. Then with Matt Mingo aboard, number-9 hitter Justin Morton delivered a sacrifice fly that brought Mingo in to make it 5-4.
However, in the eighth, the Sooners connected for five hits that would cash in four runs and put them up 8-5 and that was the way it ended.
MacDonald earned the win on the mound for the Sooners, while Chapman took the loss for Truro. Sydney had 13 hits to the Bearcats’ five.
Game 3 is Friday at 7 p.m. at Susan McEachern Memorial Field. If games 4 and 5 are needed, they will be played as a doubleheader in Sydney on Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.