Cardinals win 9-7
The rainouts of May have been catching up to the Toronto Maple Leafs in June.
With three rescheduled games plugged into the mid-June schedule, the Leafs find themselves playing a stretch of eight games in 11 days, including three in a row on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of this week.
No surprise then to find manager Damon Topolie working with a short bench at Bernie Arbour Stadium last night, as the Leafs took on the Hamilton Cardinals.
Adam Mercer, used as a reliever so far this season, got the start on the mound against the Cards' new ace Kyle Adoranti.
Topolie wrote his own name onto the scorecard as DH, marking his first in-game action of the season.
There were Marras in unexpected places on the field. Iron horse Dan Marra had the night off, and was replaced at second base by brother Justin, normally the starting catcher. Brother Adam (above), who normally makes late appearances out of the bullpen, found himself the starting rightfielder as the Leafs took the field following a scoreless top of the first.
The Redbirds soared to an early 7-0 lead, sending 12 men to the plate in the first, notching six hits off Mercer. A couple of fielding errors helped them along as the Leafs found themselves in a deep hole to start the game.
The visitors began a slow but steady comeback, scoring two runs in the top of the second.
Mercer was done after three innings and handed the ball to Mike Wagner, who remained on the mound for the final five frames. Hamilton added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 9-2 game.
The Leafs tacked on three runs in the sixth, a run in the seventh and another run in the eighth, but they ran out of outs before they could overtake the home side.
Jake Foden finished the final 2 2/3 innings for Hamilton to secure a 9-7 final score and a win for Adoranti.
Topolie led the scoring for Toronto with a pair of RBIs off a hit and an error. Johnathan Solazzo, Tyler Hardie and Zac Orchard each recorded a pair of hits and an RBI.
The revelation of the night was Adam Marra out there in right field. He made stylish catches, fired assists from his position, and went 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI. Marra provided some welcome depth on a night that began with a short bench.
Toronto 7-11-2
Hamilton 9-13-2
W - Adoranti (1-1, 11.07)
L - Mercer (0-1, 9.00)
BOXSCORE
The Leafs' loss drops them back below .500 with a 6-7 record. They remain in 4th place in the IBL standings and will next see action at Coates Stadium in Barrie on Thursday night, June 15th when they visit the still undefeated Baycats.
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