'Just a middle of the season funk'

Sports

Posted By LUKE EDWARDS, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Posted 1 month ago

Every team goes through them now and then.

The Barrie Baycats have hit a rough patch the last couple of weeks.

This past weekend they went into a home-and-home series against the Kitchener Panthers having lost three of their past five games.

Things didn't get much better against the Panthers, as Barrie dropped both weekend games to fall to 18-9 on the season.

The Panthers, on the strength of a six game winning streak, have put themselves in contention. They are now 18-12, one and a half games back of Barrie. Brantford and Toronto are sandwiched in between Barrie and Kitchener.

Kitchener almost coughed up a big lead on Sunday in Kitchener, but managed to escape with a 13-11 win.

The Panthers led 13-3 after seven innings but gave up four runs in the eighth and ninth innings to make things a little more interesting.

The near comeback was highlighted by Sean Mattson's grand slam that made it 13-11 with none out in the ninth.

However, Kitchener reliever Tavis Bruce settled down to retire the next three Barrie batters to end the game.

Baycats manager Angus Roy isn't too worried about the recent struggles of his ball club, and doesn't seem too surprised either.

"We're just in a middle of the season funk. The guys play so much ball and we have lives outside ball. It takes its toll," he said.

On Saturday, the Baycats blew a four run lead to lose 5-4.

Kitchener scored all of their runs in the seventh inning off Barrie starter Paul Spoljaric. The lefty could have got out the inning much earlier if it weren't for a couple of defensive miscues. Four of the five runs were unearned.

The backbreaking hit came off the bat of Kitchener's leadoff hitter Luke Baker.

With two out, two on and three already in, Baker hit a deep fly ball to centre field. Barrie centre fielder Jonathan Baksh initially broke in before realizing the ball was hit over his head.

He almost made up for the gaffe, but the ball kicked out of his glove as he dove to the ground.

Baker was credited with a two run double, which gave Kitchener the lead.

"We had a couple of opportunities to make plays behind (Spoljaric). Jonathan Baksh is one of the best outfielders in the league and if you ask him, he'd probably say he should have caught that ball," Roy said.

Aside from the seventh inning, Barrie played a strong defensive game, highlighted by jumping catches by shortstop David Latour and second baseman Phil Steer that took away line drive singles from Kitchener batters.

They also turned two key double plays. Spoljaric pitched to contact throughout the game and had to rely on his defence to make plays.

The Barrie starter only struck out four batters throughout seven innings of work, though he didn't give up any base on balls either.

Barrie plays two important home games this week against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto is one of four teams, along with Barrie, currently in the hunt for first place in the standings.

Barrie and Toronto square off on Tuesday and Thursday at Barrie Metals Stadium.

Both games start at 7:30 p.m.

sports@thebarrieexaminer.com

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