Alliance Take 2 of 3 From The Expos At Home
After splitting the first two games of their series this week in St.Catharines, the Merritton Alliance and Niagara Falls Expos took to Oakes Park in Niagara Falls on Friday night for the rubber match. The Expos sent Tyler Goosen to the mound to face off against Cam Mcknight of the Alliance.
Both teams wasted no time in getting on the board early in the 1st inning, as Merritton shortstop Ty Goss opened up with a single reaching 2nd on a stolen base which was promptly driven in by an RBI single from Drew Chappelle to open up the scoring. Niagara Falls then responded by getting themselves on the board with an RBI double from Steve Erickson which cashed in Al Stephens. It was in the top of the 3rd inning however that Merritton began to pull away with 6 runs in the inning featuring RBIs from Ben Collins, Steve Maurice, Dylan Rush and Ethan Wells. This prompted the exit of Goosen for the Expos who went 3 innings giving up 7 runs on 8 hits while walking 1 and striking out 4, and was replaced with Serge Gervais.
Niagara Falls however, did manage to keep the offence going for a while, and this was highlighted by an Evan Baglieri homerun in the bottom of the 5th inning. This was then followed by RBI’s from Josh Thorpe, Serge Gervais and Justin Rencon which kept the game interesting. However, due to RBI’s from Jeff Young, Steve Maurice, Drew Chappelle, Ben Collins and Dylan Rush who each had 2 on the night. And a complete game pitching performance from Mcknight who gave 10 hits while striking out 5, proved to be the difference as Merritton took the win 11-6 over Niagara Falls taking two of three on the series for the week.
The Expos drop to 4-8 on the season while the Alliance improve to 500 on the season at 6-6. The Expos will be on a little break till next Friday night where they will return to Oakes Park to play the Thorold Anchors then travel to Chippawa Lions Park to play the Welland Pioneers. While the Alliance will return home to play their fellow St.Catharines team the Cobras followed by a trip to Beamsville to play the first place and undefeated Beamsville Yellow Jackets.