Bandits fall short; and so ends the season - they lose 5-3 to the London Majors.

April 12, 2015

By Justin Lethbridge

BURLINGTON, ON

Despite giving London everything they could handle, the Bandits were unable to complete the comeback and were eliminated from the playoffs after a 5-3 loss. After two straight wins and a rain delay, Burlington and London met at Labatt Park for game seven on Tuesday night where the Majors punched their ticket to the semifinals.

Coach Kyle grew the team to the point where they put up a solid fight against a team they were not able to beat all season – pushed them to a seven game playoff series.

Burlington put up a good fight thanks to another RBI by leageue leader CF Shaun Cooper and runs by SS Keith Kandel, DH Adam Odd and C Kevin Hussey. Bandits pitchers Dylan Perego, Blake Weston and Brandon Catena allowed a combined nine hits and five runs while earning two strikeouts through eight innings.

London only needed eight at bats to come away with the victory thanks to another strong performance from pitcher Luis Pina who had six strikeouts while only allowing six hits and three runs through 7.2 innings of work.

Offensively CF Chris McQueen led the way with two runs and one RBI.

Bandits owner Scott Richardson saw his team make the London Majors work for the quarter finals win.  The Bandits didn’t make the finals last year – progress.

Despite entering the playoffs 0-5 against London, Burlington came within a win from semifinals.

Burlington’s success came off of CF Shaun Cooper’s league leading four home runs and 12 RBI’s.

Unfortunately for the Bandits, London’s pitching was just too good with Luis Pina and Oscar Perez combined for 33 SO’s.

The Bandits proved to be a plucky team when they got into the playoff rounds – they battled back again and again; pretty good for a team that wasn’t in the playoffs at all last year.

London plays the Kitchener Panthers in the semifinals starting Thursday in Kitchener.

The other semifinal got started with the Barrie Baycats etching out a 1-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.