Maple Leafs pummel Red Sox

By Rob Vona

The Toronto Maple Leafs finished up their busy weekend with a win over the Brantford Red Sox on Sunday afternoon at Dominico Field by a score of 17-2. 

With the win, the Maple Leafs finished with an even 2-2 in their four-game weekend set and improved to 19-18. 

“Four games in four days is quite a bit for the boys,” said Maple Leafs pitcher Adam Marra following the game. “I thought we brought good energy for the most part for all four games.”

The game remained at a standstill for the first three innings of play, Maple Leafs pitcher Daniel Procopio lasted only two innings, but struck out two batters and gave up only one hit. 

The Maple Leafs broke the deadlock in the bottom of the third inning with a three-run home run off the bat of shortstop Jose Vinicio, who extended his hit streak to 18 games and his on-base streak to 30 games. 

The home team rounded out the six-run inning with a pair of RBI base hits from third baseman Johnathan Solazzo and first baseman Jordan Castaldo, as well as a sac-fly from left-fielder Jesse Hodges. 

Marek Deska entered the game in the third inning and put in a strong three innings of relief that saw him strike out five batters as he picked up his second win of the year. 

Castaldo cashed in Vinicio in the bottom of the fourth inning with a single into centre-fielder to make it a 7-0 game.

Castaldo would finish the game with two hits , extending his on-base streak to 20 games. 

“The bats are starting to get going, [if] you have too many days off, you can start to lose it a little bit and get cold,” said Marra. “We can take advantage of those situations and that’s the sign of a good team.”

The Maple Leafs continued to pour it on, scoring a whopping seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, highlighted by a two-run double off the bat of infielder Grant Tamane and a three-run home run from Solazzo to extend their lead to 14-0.

Solazzo would go on to finish the game with a game-high four RBI and now co-leads the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) in home runs with 14. 

Three more runs came across to score for the Maple Leafs in the bottom of the sixth inning courtesy of a wild pitch, a fielder’s choice and an RBI base hit from Tamane.

While the Red Sox scraped across two runs on a wild pitch and an infield single, that was all the offence they could produce on the day as the Maple Leafs cruised to a 17-2 win.

The Maple Leafs have Monday off before taking on the Kitchener Panthers as a part of a continuation game on Tuesday night at Dominico Field. First pitch is set for 7:35 p.m.. 

The post game report is brought to you by Woodbine Racetrack, official sponsor of Maple Leafs baseball.