Renaud's late homerun lifts Cards over Royals

GUELPH – The Hamilton Cardinals rallied to beat the Guelph Royals 7-6 Tuesday night at David E. Hastings Stadium.

Down 3-2 in the seventh, the Cards took the lead with three runs in the top of the inning. Guelph responded with three of its own in the bottom of the seventh, which set the stage for Hamilton's eighth-inning dramatics. Chris Beer went 2-for-4 with two RBI and three runs, Justin Gideon drove in a run, Jake Foden scored twice, and Laine Renaud homered and drove in two and scored twice.

Hamilton moved to 14-13.

Kelvin Pichardo (3-1) earned the win with 1.2 innings of relief. He allowed a hit and a walk, but he struck out four. Wes Markle shut the door in the ninth, walking one and striking out one.

Zackary Gonzalez allowed five runs on eight hits with a walk and three strikeouts in six innings.

For Guelph (15-14), Josh Garton homered and drove in two, Sean Reilly and Angel Villalona each picked up an RBI, and Ricky Murray had three hits and two runs.

Evan Kiser (1-3) took the loss, allowing two runs on a hit with a walk and four strikeouts in two innings. Yunior Yambatis went seven innings and yielded five runs (four earned) on four hits with four walks and eight punchouts.