Welland Jackfish trail IBL semifinal 2-0; Hamilton Cardinals rained out

While nights out at Welland Stadium have been fun, the Jackfish face a do-or-done.

Welland is down 2-0 in the best-of-five Intercounty Baseball League semifinal after a Labour Day weekend fireworks show from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ veteran hitters. The Jackfish had home-field advantage thanks to achieving the best regular season since the franchise moved to Southern Ontario. But their playoff pitching corps are thus far hard-pressed to give the No. 1 offence in the IBL, fronted by home run champion Justin Gideon, as well as Sam Cawker and Gianfranco Morello to keep pace.

Toronto won 14-7 at home on Sunday. Over two games, Toronto bashed out 29 runs, 11 homers and 71 total bases against Welland pitching. Marcus Knecht hit three of the Maple Leafs’ eight home runs on Sunday.

Game 3, with the Jackfish facing elimination, is at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday (Sept. 6) at Welland Park.

Sunday, Gideon homered for the third game in a row, complementing the league-most 19 he hit in 42 regular-season games for the Jackfish and Hamilton Cardinals. Morello and St. Catharines native Tyler Dupuis each had two RBI. But Toronto pitcher Dylan Jacober settled Toronto by throwing four hitless shutout innings. Jacober came on after Morello and Gideon hit back-to-back home runs in the fifth, drawing Welland within three runs and chasing righty starter Dustin Richardson.

Welland has scored only one of their 17 runs in innings 6 to 9.

Jackfish lefthander Chris Lazar, a Mississauga native, was charged with the loss after allowing six earned runs in two innings.

Early lead erased in Game 1

One night earlier (Sept. 3), Toronto won 15-10 after surmounting a seven-run deficit. The top Jackfish pitching performers, starter Jake Sanford and reliever Chris Boatto, and veteran righty Brett Lawson could not hold the touchdown lead.

Boatto, who had a 2.89 ERA (earned-run average) in a team-most 19 games, was charged with the pitching loss after Justin Marra hit a go-ahead two-run single in the seventh inning. Harford, who put down a 2.73 ERA in a team-most 13 starts, was reached for eight runs and 10 hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Welland was within a run at 11-10 entering the ninth. With Welland deep into pitching options, Niagara Falls native Brandon Underhill got the call to hold the line. But the afemorentioned Morra and Knecht both belted two-run home runs.

The Jackfish are in their third season in Welland, after the IBL franchise played as the Mississauga Twins, Burlington Bandits and Burlington Herd for a decade. Their regular season, where they finished in a triple dead heat for first place, was the best in team history, with a  .738 winning percentage that represented a 200-point jump from their previous best (.528 in 2019). Welland was given the No. 3 playoff seed based on tiebreakers with Guelph and London.

Welland led the IBL in runs (10.14 per game), on-base percentage (.410), long hits (139 combined doubles and triples) and stolen bases (202). They accounted for 35 per cent of the league’s stolen bases, with an 87.8 per cent success rate that surpassed the 81.5 across the rest of the IBL.

The IBL reseeds for the semifinals. The Hamilton Cardinals’ shock win against the No. 2-seeded Guelph Royals set up the Toronto-Welland matchup. Hamilton is down 1-0 against the No. 1-seeded London Majors in theother semifinal.

Game 4, if necessary, will be in Toronto on Wednesday. A potential Game 5 would be back in Welland on Thursday.

Cardinals not home till Wednesday

Hamilton is having some R&R — rain and recovery time — after a washout on Sunday. The tradeoff from the rainout is that Hamilton gets two days off but Game 2 will be in London on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals host Game 3 at Bernie Arbour Stadium on Wednesday (Sept. 7, 7:35 p.m.). They would also host a potential Game 4 (Sept. 9).

London won 12-1 in Game 1 on Saturday, when Hamilton came in after 10-inning series clincher in Guelph. The Majors also swept their season series against Hamilton. Ryan Burnside hit a solo home run to squelch a shutout bid.