Baycats snag important win

Sports

IBL: Barrie hangs on against Toronto to stay in hunt for first place

Posted By LUKE EDWARDS, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Updated 1 month ago

Mark Wanzel photoWhile running to second base Ryan Spataro watches Rob Gillis loose the ball during during Intercounty Baseball League action held Thursday at Barrie Medals Stadium.July/8/10

When Kyle Payne struck out Toronto's Rob Gillis to end Thursday night's Barrie Baycats game, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief among the Baycat faithful.

Payne closed the door on the Maple Leafs, though he made it interesting.

Down 8-6 heading into the ninth, Toronto loaded the bases with only one out in the final frame, but were unable to complete what would have been a huge comeback against Barrie. The Baycats were up 8-1 after five innings before Toronto began chipping away at the Barrie lead.

Bissell looked locked in early on, holding Toronto scoreless through the first five innings. However, in the sixth inning the lefty struggled with a tight strike zone that caused him to lose his composure and subsequently give up four runs and fail to escape the sixth frame.

"It was a battle ... you've got to battle when you don't have your best stuff, and things aren't going your way," Bissell said.

Barrie's starter was visibly upset as he came off the mound after being pulled in the sixth.

He was picked up, though, by an offence that scored six runs in the first two innings. Ryan Spataro led the onslaught, going 2-for-4 with three runs scored and a walk. His night was capped off with a grand slam home run in the second inning.

Although tension in the crowd rose with each To ro nto run, Barrie manager Angus Roy didn't seem too surprised that Toronto made it close.

"They're a good team and (we knew) they weren't going to quit. I'm not going to say we let up, they just started executing and hitting the ball around," Roy said.

After a disappointing weekend that saw Barrie drop two games to the Kitchener Panthers, the Baycats headed into this week with two key home games against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs.

They dropped the first game, on Tuesday by a score of 8-5. Roy said the team was pretty disappointed about that loss. A come-from-behind win by To ro nto over Barrie Thursday night would have been disheartening for the Baycats.

"We were disappointed with Tuesday. We thought we had a chance to win. We were up 5-3, but couldn't hold it. But tonight we focused up and made enough plays to win," Roy said.

The win ties Barrie with Toronto for second place in the IBL, a half-game behind Brantford.

Despite struggling to put together wins in recent weeks, the Baycats remain in the hunt for top spot in the standings. At the beginning of June, Barrie seemed locked in a two-horse race for top spot with the Red Sox. However, Brantford and Barrie have struggled recently --Brantford was 5-5 and Barrie was 4-6 in their last 10 games heading into action Thursday night -- while Kitchener and Toronto have upped their play.

The four teams are now all within three games of each other.

Barrie heads to Guelph to battle the seventh-place Royals this Saturday before returning home to square off against Mississauga on Sunday.

sports@thebarrieexaminer.com

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