'Cats keep rollin'

Sports

Posted By STEPHEN SWEET, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Posted 1 month ago

Chicks may dig the long ball, but teammates respect the grinders.

The Barrie Baycats had plenty of both on Thursday night as they trounced the Mississauga Twins 10-2 at Meadowvale Field.

With the win, Barrie now holds a three game to none advantage on Twins heading into Saturday afternoon's contest in Mississauga.

"You look at Ryan Spataro's performance. He had three or four hits, and really only hit the ball hard once."

Spataro's second hit of the game was a dribbler that he slid into first to beat out, bringing home Ryan Davis to tie the game at one in the third. Despite protest from the Mississauga manager, the play and run held up.

"Our speed is really an advantage," Roy said. "It really puts the pressure on the other team's defence."

In the fifth, it was power courtesy of Sean Mattson that brought home the runs, hitting a two-run shot directly over the scoreboard in left-centre field to give Barrie a 3-1 lead.

"Coach put on the hit and run," he said, "and what we normally try and do is put it through the right side of the field.

"But here, the pitcher just left one right over the plate. I got it up in the air and it just kept going."

And then in the sixth inning, big and small plays came together for a nine-batter frame.

Spataro led off the inning with a perfectly-placed bunt for a single and then advanced to second on a throwing error.

Stevie Lewis battled through a two-strike count to drop a single into left field, scoring Spataro to increase to lead to 4-1.

Lewis would steal second to get into scoring position, but it didn't matter once Jordan Lundberg stepped up to the plate.

The veteran infielder crushed a high fastball over the fence in left-centre field to make it a 6-1 ballgame and knock Mississauga starter Shane Cole from the contest.

"Their guy was pitching well, but the second time through the order, we started tracking his pitches a little better," said Roy.

"Once he started making mistakes, we made him pay for them."

Barrie added four more runs in a sloppy eighth inning, with plenty of stolen bases and advancements on errors, making Mississauga's difficult night even longer.

"It's huge to get as a pitcher," said Barrie starter Adam Hawes. "You go out there with no pressure, and if you give up some runs it's not a big deal with a lead like that."

Hawes gave Barrie their third consecutive quality start in the playoffs, giving up an unearned run and just four hits through seven innings of work.

"I felt pretty good out there," said Hawes, sporting quite the playoff moustache. "I was just throwing strikes and trying to keep our defence in it, which was working."

The Twins took their first lead of the series after striking in the opening inning. Eitan Moaz's single slipped through the right side to score leadoff man Brendan Emmett.

"The first inning I was a little high in the zone with my pitches," Hawes said. "(Catcher) Matt Proctor and I went over things and made some adjustments to get ground ball outs instead and it worked."

Proctor ended up leaving the game in the eighth with an apparent leg injury. Lundberg moved behind the plate for the final six outs.

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