Leafs Rally the Pits

 

2022 IBL Championship Series - Game 2

September 15 - London Majors at Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs win 9-6, series tied 1-1

The Maple Leafs slap hands after winning Game 2 of the championship series, to the delight of fans and rally skunks alike.

Rally rally!

After a quiet opener on the road, the Toronto Maple Leafs lit up Christie Pits with the kind of performance we have come to love.  The Leafs rallied early and stayed ahead the rest of the way to take a 9-6 victory over the London Majors.

For the Leafs' power quad of Jordan Castaldo, Justin Marra, Marcus Knecht and Johnathan Solazzo, the first two games of the IBL Championship Series were night and day.

In Game 1, they struck out a combined 10 times and recorded only two hits.  After the game, Solazzo said it was time to hit the reset button and did they ever.

Last night, in front of a lively and behoodied crowd, the quad drove in five runs off eight hits with only three strikeouts.  By the 4th inning they drove London starter Pedro De Los Santos off the mound in a disheveled state, his jersey hanging out of his pants, his glasses misting over and six earned runs beside his name.

London's Byron Reichstein opened the scoring in the top of the 2nd with a two-run homer off starter Sam Greene.

The Leafs rallied in the bottom of the inning.  Singles by centerfielder Connor Lewis and DH Damon Toplie put them aboard, and second baseman Dan Marra was hit by a De Los Santos pitch.  With the bases loaded, shortstop Jose Vinicio hit an RBI single.  Catcher Justin Marra then whacked a bases-clearing double to give the Leafs a 4-2 lead.  

Both teams traded runs in the 3rd to make it a 5-3 ballgame.

Greene pitched three tidy innings.  He gave up two earned runs, two hits, two walks and struck out one.  Dylan Jacober, the calmest baseball player in Canada, took over on the mound and greeted the Majors with three swinging strikeouts.

Bottom of the 4th: "Marra, Marra, give it to ya!"  The Leafs' big-swinging catcher walloped a solo homer to put his team ahead 6-3.  He rounded second with double finger points to the Bushmen who serenaded him from the Christie hillside.  The Pits did not go quiet the rest of the night.

In the top of the 5th, the Majors' Cleveland Brownlee doubled in two runs to make it a 6-5 ballgame.  

The power quad hit up reliever Daniel Gore in the bottom of the 6th.  Four straight singles from Castaldo, Justin, Knecht and Solazzo -- who cashed in two runs -- made it 8-5.

Jacober calmly tightened his grip on the game and retired nine men in a row in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings.

The Leafs added one more in the bottom of the 8th to make it 9-5.  Jacober returned to the mound to close it out.  A walk and two singles put another run on the board for the Majors.  Manager Garrett Takamatsu made the call to the pen for closer Franklin Hernandez, who got the job done.  A couple of groundouts ended the game with a 9-6 FINAL score, much to the delight of the masses.

London 6 7 2

Toronto 9 12 1

W - Jacober (3-0, 2.91)

L - De Los Santos (1-2, 4.11)

S - Hernandez (4)

BOXSCORE

The series continues later this evening at Labatt Park in London.  Game 3 goes at 7:35 pm.