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Giants win first round of playoffs

August 12, 2015   ·   0 Comments

The Orangeville Giants pulled off a huge playoff win over the Aurora Jays with a 3-1 series win in the first round of the North Dufferin Baseball League playoffs.

The Giants were a .500 team all season finishing the regular season with a 12-12-2 record.

The Aurora squad was the second seed going into the playoff after ending the regular season with a 19-7 win so the Giants knew they were up for some fierce competition.

After winning game one of the series 5-3 on August 4, the Giants returned for game two on August 7, and delivered a huge 10-4 win to lead the series by two games and set up a big showdown for the double header scheduled for Sunday, August 9, at Springbrook Park in Orangeville.

If the Giants could win the first game they would take the series and be home in time for dinner. If they came up short the second game would go ahead with a 5:00 p.m. start.

Banking on a big win, the Giants started the scoring with a strong first inning when Josh Hickey hit to right field for a double and brought in two O-ville runs.

That was followed by a hit to the hole in centre field by Drew Huerter to give the Giants a three run lead in the opening minute of the game.

An Aurora error bought a few extra seconds and allowed the Giants to score number four to end the inning.

The second inning saw Nathan Drury hit to the fence in right field for a rare triple followed by a two run home run by Mitchell Pike to give the Giants a 6-0 lead early in the game.

The Giants capitalized on and Aurora error in the fourth then another deep hit from Josh Hickey to lead the game 9-1 at the end of the fourth.

From there is was all downhill when the Aurora squad started getting the bats moving starting with a three run home run in the fifth.

The Jays closed the gap with some good hitting in the later innings that made it a 9-8 game going in the final inning. The game ended with a double that advanced an Aurora player to third base then another hit that brought it two runs to give the Jays a one run lead to end the game at 10-9.

It was a disappointment for the Giants who weren’t too happy about blowing an eight run lead.

“We were able to get runs in the first three innings then they slowly chipped away a couple of innings then got the big hits when it mattered,” Said Giant’s Troy Barwick of the day’s first game. “Our pitchers were making the pitches, but there was mental decisions that weren’t the greatest – just some tough breaks that didn’t go our way.”

The first two games of the series showed what the Giants can do when under pressure.

“Our pitching, Nick (Hodgson) and Carson (Burns) both pitched great games are our bats were just on fire,” Barwick said. “Our bats came alive at the right time.”

Going into second game of the double header on Sunday, the teams took a 30 minute break before heading back out.

“We’ve just got to pick ourselves up and not let us get down and make sure the bats can get hot again.”

The Giants went to work and played a solid game that won them the series after taking a break and regrouping for the second game They got back into the swing and capped the day with an 8-4 win to knock the Jays out of the series and advance to the second round of the playoffs.

After going down 1-0 in the first they got a run back in the bottom of the inning, then followed up scoring three in the second inning. Another three runs came in the fifth inning.

Top hitters in our 4 game series were starting short stop, third batter,  Mitchell Pike – 6-12, 3 doubles, 2 home runs, 1 BB, 7 Runs scored, 5 RBIs. Starting first baseman  fourth batter., Josh Hickey- 7-14, 1 double, 2 triples, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 5 Runs scored, 10 RBIs.

The Orangeville team will now move on to the second round and will be up against the top seeded New Lowell Knights.

The Knights won their first round series over the Mansfield Cubs in three games.

In other series action, the Ivy Leafs won their first round series over the Barrie Angels in three games.

The Clearview Orioles are leading the Bolton Dogers 2-1 in their first round series.


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