Offensive Fireworks Carry Maple Leafs Past Brantford in Regular Season Finale

By Noam Streiffer

The Leafs pulled through in a crucial 14-13 slugfest against the Brantford Red Sox on Saturday night. This win, combined with a Kitchener Panthers loss, secures the 7 seed for the Maple Leafs heading into the IBL playoffs next weekend.

The Leafs elected to go for a bullpen game to end the regular season, giving them the opportunity to rest their starting pitchers ahead of the playoffs.

Ayami Sato opened for the Leafs and made it through two and a third, but allowed four runs on six hits, including a home run to Brody Black.

The Leafs offense was able to keep pace with the Red Sox thanks to none other than Jordan Castaldo, who doubled in two runs in the first before exploding for a grand slam in the 2nd inning to record his first six RBIs of the night.

Castaldo earned player of the game honors for his performance tonight, and he had this to say postgame: “The swing felt good… I'm happy to just be in my approach, swinging at pitches I want to swing at getting my A+ swing off… the mound felt a little further away than usual if you want to say that.”

With the Leafs leading by two in the top of the third, things turned over to Adam Jafine out of the bullpen, who allowed four runs in an inning and two thirds. The big swing came on a three-run shot from Jakob Cantor.

The Leafs continued to keep pace. Dan Marra came in to score on a fielder's choice in the third before Dennis Dei Baning put one over the wall in the 4th to tack on a couple more, making it a 9-9 game after four.

The Leafs pulled ahead in the 5th on a two-run single from Jordan Castaldo, before Wilgenis Alvarado immediately surrendered the lead in the top of the 6th, allowing four runs — though only one of them was earned due to some poor defense from the Leafs infield.

The final lead change came in the bottom half of the 6th on an RBI single from Ben Sitarenios, who came around to score on Mike Chaccetto’s two-run single to reach the final score of 14-13.

From there the offense cooled off for both sides, and Luis Florentino and Matt Brown combined for three innings allowing no runs, with Brown collecting the save as the Leafs finished a long but well-played game.

“We weren't at our best, had a lot of guys playing out of position, but guys just battled and had a lot of good at bats and some timely hits and we were able to pull off the win,” Castaldo commented postgame.

It’s scoreboard-watching time now for the Leafs, as they’ll take on the winner of the Barrie Baycats vs. London Majors game on Sunday afternoon. The winner of that matchup secures the two seed. First pitch from Athletic Kulture Stadium in Barrie is at 4:05 PM.