One day after being demolished by the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Kitchener Panthers roared back with a demolition job of their own. They won 19-1 at Christie Pits this afternoon to tie their opening round series at one game apiece.
Kitchener DH Bryon Bell led the assault with three home runs including a grand slam, as he racked up nine RBIs. Catcher Rick Murray also homered and drove in five more.
The entire Leafs team misfired in unison today. They committed four errors. They got shelled for 16 hits and 15 earned runs. They were held to just three hits over the first seven innings. Their lone run of the game was "driven in" through a bases loaded walk. That wasn't until the eighth inning, but by then it was far too late to get back in the game.
The game was blown apart in the third inning. The Panthers mauled Toronto starter Justin Cicatello for seven runs off six hits and an error.
There was a negative vibe at the Pits from the very start. A constant stream of clouds passed overhead on a wind that was blew in all afternoon. By the late innings, a massive dark formation appeared and it looked like it might rain to cap off a perfectly shit day.
Once Kitchener started scoring, they kept scoring. It sucked the life out of the place. The players were quiet, the fans were quiet. There was a brief, testy exchange behind the Kitchener bench between supporters of the two clubs. Nothing came of it.
The bad news: it may have been the Leafs worst game as a team all season.
The good news: they have never played even close to this badly as a team all season, which means we can write this one off as an anomaly.
As of now, it's a best-of-five series.
Recap:
I can either spend the next little while writing a detailed inning-by-inning recap of how the Kitchener Panthers amassed 19 runs on 16 hits today, with four Toronto Maple Leafs errors sprinkled throughout.
Or, I can enjoy a deluxe mac & cheese (with ham and green peppers) at a sensible hour, rather than at 1:00 in the morning.
Mac & Cheese wins this round. My apologies to the literally zero readers who will be put off by not finding a detailed recap of today's bust here. You can gawk and gasp at the boxscore on Pointstreak.com.
The next game of this series will be played Tuesday night, August 13 at Jack Couch Park in Kitchener.
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