Cardinals Lose Pitching Duel With Barrie

The Hamilton Cardinals lost 3-2 in a pitcher’s duel to the Barrie Baycats. 

Barrie starting-pitcher, Juan Benitez struck out nine batters in seven innings while only conceding one earned run. Benitez now has 21 strikeouts to his name, good enough for sixth in the IBL. 

Cardinals third-baseman, Laine Renaud had an RBI-double to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. 

Hamilton first-baseman, Josh Niles had an outstanding game with a double, two runs and multiple defensive highlights.

Tristan Osika also made some nice plays at second base for the Cardinals. Osika has yet to record an error in 43.2 innings.

Ben Braun suffered the loss but pitched 5.1 solid innings for the Cardinals. Braun gave up two runs on four hits, striking out three and walking three.

Jacob Gajic and Stefan Strecker both pitched a scoreless inning for Hamilton and Daury Torrez struck out the side in order, in the top of the ninth.

Gajic also recorded his team-leading thirteenth strike out in 6.2 innings pitched.

The Cardinals came up just short on their comeback, as the tying run was just 90 feet away on more than one occasion. 

This loss drops Hamilton’s record to 2-5 on the season with a few rescheduled games coming up. 

Hamilton will play their next game Saturday, June 11 on the road in Guelph at 2 p.m.

The Cardinals will then return home on Sunday, June 12 to battle the Welland Jackfish at 7:35 p.m. at Bernie Arbour Memorial Stadium.

Get your tickets for Friday's game, and any Cardinals home game during the regular season, through SeatGIANT. 

Written by Jarrett Matthews
Photo by Art Ward