Leafs Crushed by Barnstormers, Dropping Crucial Game in Playoff Race

By Noam Streiffer

The Leafs dropped a key matchup with the Chatham Kent Barnstormers on Sunday afternoon. With this loss, the Leafs now sit 4.5 games back of the Barnstormers for home-field advantage in the playoffs.

Matt Brown got the start for the Leafs and struggled his way through four innings of work, allowing seven runs on six hits. Three errors by the Leafs' defense didn’t help the final line, as Brown took the loss on the day.

Chatham Kent countered with Mizuki Akatsuka, who had a quality outing—going five and a third innings, allowing just one earned run, and striking out seven to qualify for the win.

Toronto got on the board first. After Ryan Dos Santos reached base on an error, Jhon Javier blasted a home run to give Toronto an early 2–0 lead.

The Barnstormers answered back with a two-run homer of their own from Andrew Groening to tie the game heading into a quiet second inning.

Chatham Kent broke the deadlock in the bottom of the third on a balk and an error to make it a 4–2 game. They added three more the very next inning on a fielder’s choice and another two-run homer to make it 7–2.

The Barnstormers broke things open in the bottom of the sixth, doubling their run total with a seven-run frame. The scoring came on a combination of home runs and clutch base hits as Chatham Kent batted around.

Toronto added two more runs in the top of the eighth inning on a pair of RBI groundouts, but four runs were all they could muster as they fell to the Barnstormers 14–4.

Up Next: The Leafs head to Barrie to take on the third-place Baycats on August 7. First pitch at 7:35 PM.