Odd's eighth-inning bomb powers Baycats 3-1 over Welland in pitchers' duel

CANADIAN BASEBALL LEAGUE
Welland 000 000 100— 1 3 2
Barrie  000 000 03x— 3 5 2

     Saldaña, De Los Santos (BS, L,1-2) (8) and Mullen;
Garcés, Sano (W,7-1) (8) and Ciprian, Puyol-Genossar (2).
HRs: Wel — None; Bar — Odd (4).

A pitcher's duel lasted seven innings before Adam Odd's two-run homer over the right-field scoreboard lifted the Barrie Baycats (16-8) to a 3-1 win over the Welland Jackfish (17-10) Thursday at Athletic Kulture Stadium.

The win for Barrie marked its fourth in four matchups against the defending IBL champs this season.

Odd's home run was his second in as many games and was just the second hit of the game for the Baycats, coming in the eighth inning. Until that point, both teams were neutralized by starting pitching.

"It's a great rivalry," Baycats manager Josh Matlow said postgame. "And, obviously when they come here they bring their best... it was a pitcher's duel right to the end."

Frank Garcés and Abdiel Saldaña each pitched seven innings, with Barrie unable to muster much off Saldaña. The Jackfish right-hander surrendered one hit, struck out seven and walked two in his second CBL start while retiring the minimum from the end of the second inning onward.

Meanwhile, Garcés had his fourth quality start of the season, allowing just an unearned run on three hits while fanning five and walking two.

The turning point came when Pedro De Los Santos (1-2) entered in the eighth. After Nolan Machibroda singled to lead off the frame, Odd greeted him with his fourth home run of the season to give him the left-hander his second loss against Barrie this season after blowing the save.

Odd said it he used his familiarity with De Los Santos as longtime foes and former teammates to his advantage in his game-changing at-bat.

"I saw the slider, I saw it well and just sat on it the rest of the at bat because I figured he'd go back to it at least once," he told Barrie360 postgame. "You're always on your toes with him. He's a good pitcher, we've just been able to get to him this year."

Canice Ejoh drove in a key insurance run three batters later with Brandon Hernandez scoring from first base on a bloop single to right field.

The eighth-inning rally appeared to frustrate De Los Santos, who was ejected after tossing his glove toward third base umpire Ryan Herron during a routine substance check at the end of the inning. Jackfish manager Brian Essery was also ejected following the incident.

However, Odd nearly nullified his home run with an error in the ninth inning, dropping a routine pop-up to second base, which brought up the tying run. But he bounced back, assisting on a 6-4-3 double play one batter later.

"You can't think about [the error]," the 31-year-old said. "As I've gotten older I've been able to learn to flush it... when I was younger I would have let it affect my next play."

Odd, typically a third baseman, got the start at second base in place of Francisco Hernandez who served the second of a three-game suspension in connection to a bench-clearing incident on Friday in Toronto. Hernandez is eligible to return on July 16. Matlow returned to the top step of the dugout on Thursday after serving a one-game ban in relation to the same incident.

Welland's only run scored off a throwing error by Baycats shortstop Brandon Hernandez as he tried to turn a double play in the seventh. It was Hernandez's ninth error of the season, which puts him in a tie with Chatham-Kent's Julien Monks for the league lead.

"It's frustrating... but that's part of baseball," Matlow said, reflecting on the first half of the season, which saw his team lead the CBL in errors with 29. "Unfortunately it happened again to us, but the good news is it didn't cost us the game."

Carlos Sano (7-1) shut the door on the Jackfish in the final two innings to pick up the win, taking the league lead in the category.

Welland had the only other extra-base hit in the game, with Ethan Mann doubling in the fifth.

Barrie finishes the first half of the newly-extended 48-game CBL season half a game back of London for first place. Its .652 winning percentage is 37 points higher than it was at the halfway mark last season.

"We had a really good first half," Odd said. "I think we had a couple of stinkers, but those are going to happen. We can't have guys rolling every game, whether it's pitchers, whether it's hitters, whoever."

UP NEXT

Saul Vasquez (2-0, 4.81 ERA) on Friday when he starts for the Baycats in Brantford. Connor Irvine (0-4, 9.00) is expected to start for the Red Sox in what will be the final game for both teams before the CBL All-Star Game.

Welland waits a week for its next game, hosting Guelph on July 16. It could mark the return of pitcher Euclides Leyer, who has missed his last five starts due to injury.