IBL Quarterfinals - Game 1 - August 22, 2024
Toronto Maple Leafs at Barrie Baycats
Toronto 8
Barrie 14
Barrie leads series 1-0
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| Ryan Dos Santos looks on as Justin Marra bats last night in Barrie. Marra and Mike Cecchetto each recorded three hits including a home run, but the Baycats took Game 1. |
Whoop-Ass.
Last night at Vintage Throne Stadium, the Barrie Baycats opened up a big can of it at the expense of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
As the sun set behind the conifers beyond right field, the clubs opened their 2024 Quarterfinal series. Frank Garces on the mound for the home side against the noisy horse, Angel Castro.
A scoreless opening inning gave way to said can being opened and said asses being whooped.
In the bottom of the second inning, Barrie sent ten men to the plate. They racked up six singles and a walk to put five runs on the board.
In the bottom of the third inning, Brandon Hernandez hit a bases-clearing, three-run double to make it 8-0 Barrie.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Baycats pounded out four more hits including a solo home run by Nolan Machibroda. They scored five more runs to make it 13-0. Castro could not make it through the inning and Alex Lanigan came in to staunch the bleeding.
While all of this was going on, the Leafs barely made a scratch on Garces. Through five innings they recorded just one hit, a single off the bat of centerfielder Connor Lewis.
Garces pitched six innings, giving up just three hits while striking out ten and walking two.
The score remained 13-0 until the seventh, when catcher Justin Marra hit a solo home run off of reliever Ryan Lacasse. Marra rounded the bases at a steady trot, head down, no appetite for celebrating despite running in the direction of the Bushmen, who were seated behind the third-base corner.
A quartet of Bushmen was on the scene, blasting the Throne with heckling all game long. Garces seemed impervious to the taunts, perhaps spared by a language barrier. Lacasse appeared to come undone by a multi-inning barrage of chair-based put-downs based on a mistranslation of his surname that defies explanation. It's like trying to sum up Ulysses in one sentence. You had to be there through the whole organic experience.
Anyway, it worked. The Leafs rallied late.
Barrie scored another run in the bottom of the seventh to make it 14-1, but Toronto scored again in the eighth. DH Mike Cecchetto hit an RBI single to score Justin and make it 14-2.
Landon Leach pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth to keep things rolling. Frustrations also boiled over. Leafs manager Rob Butler was tossed. Angel Castro was also tossed from the bench, the home plate umpire's tolerance of all his racket finally exhausted.
In the top of the ninth, the Leafs almost staged an impossible comeback. Lacasse remained on the mound, wondering why those lunatics on the third base side kept yelling about chairs. He surrendered a single to Julian Johnson, who had been subbed in at first base in place of Jordan Castaldo. Right fielder Marcus Knecht then blasted a two-run bomb. Lacasse started coming apart like a patio chair left outside over winter. Third baseman Johnathan Solazzo reached base on an error, and Justin Marra followed with a double. A walk to pinch hitter Greg Carrington loaded the bases. That brought Cecchetto back to the plate, and big Number 3 hit a blast of Ruthian proportions. Grand Slam! Holy Smokes! Lacasse was on the ropes, but he escaped. Second baseman Dan Marra popped out to end the game, the Baycats grabbed the 14-8 FINAL and got out of there.
Garces was the winning pitcher and Castro took the loss. A shattered Lacasse was awarded a save for his three-inning effort.
Toronto 8 12 1
Barrie 14 18 1
W - Garces (1-0, 0.00)
L - Castro (0-1, 32.40)
S - Lacasse (1)
It's on to Game Two tomorrow, a rare Saturday Night Main Event at Christie Pits. Game time is 7:30 pm.
It promises to be a high-decibal night, as the Leafs pre-game festivities will kick off at 6:00 pm and BW the DJ will be spinning tunes all night long. At the same time, a punk rock festival will be going on at the skate park next door. Decibals and more decibals.
UPDATE: it was announced on Saturday that the skate park punk rock festival relocated to a different venue.
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