Archive

Giants / Knights tied in NDBL championship

September 1, 2016   ·   0 Comments

Win on Sunday ties series at one

The Orangeville Giants senior baseball club are tied at one game each with the New Lowell Knights in their best of seven North Dufferin Baseball League senior championship series.

The series got underway on Saturday, August 27, in New Lowell.

That game ended with a 10-3 win for the Knights.

Returning to Orangeville on Sunday (Aug. 28) for game two, the teams met for a 2:00 p.m. start at Princess of Wales Park in Orangeville.

The Giants got the first run of the game in the first inning when Mitchell Pike hit to shallow centre for a single that advanced a runner to third base.

A sacrifice hit on the next play allowed a runner to cross the plate.

Derek Gordon followed up with another hit to centre for an RBI that made it a 2-0 game.

New Lowell was back in the game during the fourth inning when Brandon Norrie led off with a double on a hit to the left field fence.

The bases were loaded on a bunt down the third base line that set up the next play.

A hit to centre field brought in two Knights runs to make it a 2-2 game.

The fifth inning was a big one for the Giants starting with a ground rule double by Mike Wallace.

With the bases loaded, Nick Hodgson hit a single that brought in two O-ville runs to put the Giants ahead 4-2.

The rest of the game was a solid defensive battle on both sides.

The game ended with the final New Lowell at-bat and no runs scored to tie the series at one.

“That’s the difference when you get into the finals. There’s a lot better pitching, catching, fielding,” said Giants coach Nathan Drury, about the lack of movement on the diamond.

There was good hitting in the Sunday game but not a lot running compared to a regular season game.

“You can’t make running errors on the bases. That’s the worst thing you can do is get someone thrown out. You got to rely on the bats at this point.”

Giants pitcher Nick Hodgson was on the mound for the entire game.

“Going into last year, our pitcher Hodgson – he did a great job last year and pitched a lot of innings in our semi-final,” Drury said.

The Giants met New Lowell in the second round of playoffs last season.

“I know he can contain them. My plan was to let him go all seven. We had pitchers here just in case, but I had some confidence in them. He seems to shut them down. He was a big part of the win today.”

The teams will take a week off of the series to take part in a provincial tournament.

The final series will get back underway on Saturday, September 10, in New Lowell with a 1:00 p.m. start.

Game four will move the series back to Orangeville on Sunday, September 11.

The first pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.

Readers Comments (0)