By Justin Lethbridge
July 18th, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
On a humid Saturday afternoon at Nelson Park, the Burlington Bandits overcame the tough Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 in the first game of a double-header. Both teams got off to a slow start but still managed to have an exciting seven-inning game.
Bandit pitching was steady – but it was the batters that took the game.
Toronto finally broke through the great pitching of Burlington’s Steven Dressier in the fifth, scoring the games first run. The Maple Leaf’s followed it up by bringing two more runs in with the bases loaded. Burlington would fire back in the sixth with a home run. Than, with two on base, Jim Martin stepped up and hit a ball right to the fence to bring two runners in to even the game. Immediately afterwards Toronto changed pitchers to no avail as Martin would score on the next hit to take the lead.
The Maple Leafs would tie it up at 4-4 but weren’t able to take the lead in the seventh inning allowing Burlington up to bat needing a single run to win. After a bunt and wild pitch, a deep hit brought in the winning run for the Bandits.
Burlington would go into the break with the momentum as they looked to make up more ground on Toronto in the standings.
After the first game the Bandits were 1.5 games back of the Maple Leafs for fifth in the league.
