By Justin Lethbridge
August 3, 2015
BURLINGTON. ON
Friday: – in London, Michael Ambrose and Brett Sabourin each homered and drove in two as the Majors beat the Burlington Bandits 12-2 in game 1 of their quarter-final series Friday night.
Both Ambrose and Sabourin finished with three hits and combined to score three runs.
London shortstop Paul Lytwynec had four hits, an RBI and run, centre-fielder Humberto Ruiz had three hits, two RBI and scored three times, first baseman Cleveland Brownlee drove in a pair, second baseman Cody Mombourquette had three hits and three runs, and Chris McQueen added two hits and two runs.
Luis Pina (1-0) went seven innings for the win, giving up two runs on three hits, walking three and striking out two.
That was the first game of the quarter finals in the InterCounty Baseball League where Burlington is battling the London Majors.
Monday: The Burlington Bandits put up a good fight but dropped game two 7-4 to the London Majors. Unlike the first game in their best-of-seven playoff, the Bandits gave London all they could handle on Monday night.
Pitcher Rick Corrente came out in the 7th inning
After going down 1-0 early, the Bandits fired back in the bottom of the first. First basemen Jim Martin hit a ball right to the back fence to bring two runners in and give Burlington their first lead of the series. Shortstop Keith Kandel would add to the lead in the 2nd inning with a home run.
While the Majors would answer with runs in the 3rd and 5th innings to tie the game, the Bandits pitcher Steven Dressler held his team in the game. Through six innings of work, he gave up six hits and three runs while striking out three batters for a 4.50 ERA. Unfortunately for the Bandits, London’s Oscar Perez was better. Through eight innings, Perez allowed only six hits and four runs while earning eight strikeouts for the win.
With the score tied at 3-3 in the 8th, Bandits pitcher Rich Corrente would allow four runs on four hits to give the Majors the 7-3 lead. The Bandits wouldn’t go down without a fight, scoring a run in the 9th while loading the bases three times in the final two innings. They just weren’t able to capitalize and now face a two game deficit in the series.
Game three is at 7:35pm, Tuesday August 4th in London before the series returns to Nelson Park for game four on Thursday at 7:30pm. For up-to-date information on all the playoff action, go to www.theibl.ca.
Portions of this report were taken from the IBL web site
