LINESCORE
CANADIAN BASEBALL LEAGUE
Hamilton 004 000 000— 4 9 0
Barrie 000 000 010— 1 9 0
Ramirez (W,1-0), Hospital (8), Adames (S,2) (9) and Hernandez;
Vasquez (L,0-1), Večerka (7) and Puyol-Genossar.
HRs: Ham — None; Bar — None.
OTHER SCORES
London at Welland (7:05 p.m., London leads series 2-0)
A third of an inning contained all the offence the Hamilton Cardinals needed to tame the Barrie Baycats on Saturday afternoon.
With two outs in the third inning, Hamilton strung together five consecutive singles off Baycats starter Saul Vasquez (0-1), driving in four runs en route to a 4-1 win over Barrie to take a 2-0 lead in the CBL Semifinals.
Nine Cardinals batted in the inning, which contained six of the team's nine hits and the only blip on an otherwise strong outing from Vasquez, who finished six innings having allowed just those four earned runs and nine hits while striking out four.
"He did real well," Baycats manager Josh Matlow told Barrie360 postgame about Vasquez. "They were all singles, [the Cardinals] had good at bats, they have a great approach, they're not easy outs."
Matlow was instead more frustrated with how his team responded after falling behind.
"We were flat," he said. "You fall behind four and all of a sudden it feels like 12 and guys were throwing equipment and acting like a bunch of children, and it's just a bad look. It doesn't feel good as a manager when we're only down four and in the third inning, so it's frustrating. I would have liked to see a little more fight."
While Hamilton capitalized on its opportunity in the third, Barrie couldn't do the same with its chances throughout the afternoon.
Against Cardinals starter Luis Ramirez (1-0), who matched his season-high in innings pitched with a seven-inning outing, Barrie had leadoff hits in six of those seven innings, but only managed to bring two of those runners into scoring position and scored just once.
After Ryan Rijo doubled past a diving Angel Guerrero's attempt to catch his looping liner into left field, he eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Wandy Ciprian.
Rijo went 3-for-4 for the second time in as many games, accounting for a third of Barrie's hits on Saturday, including a double.
Ramirez was efficient despite allowing seven hits, giving up just one run while striking out seven. He was the beneficiary of two double plays, while Barrie hit into four overall.
Barrie also had a leadoff hit in the eighth inning, but it was immediately erased when Noel McGarry Doyle popped into a double play.
None of the five pitchers that appeared in the game issued a walk.
This is the first time the Baycats have lost two games to begin a best-of-seven series since being swept by Brantford in the 2012 IBL Finals.
Despite the hole, Matlow remains adamant the Baycats are not out of the series; they just need to produce offensively.
"We know what we're capable of," he said. "You put the bat on the ball, you get a few runs, it's hard to beat us — with our pitching too. So, we need to score, it's not a secret."
UP NEXT
Two one-time league MVPs — Barrie's Frank Garcés (1-0, 3.60 ERA) and Hamilton's Owen Boon — will start on Sunday afternoon in Hamilton for Game 3.
"It's not an ideal guy to get [the offence] going against," Matlow says, referencing Boon. "However, if we do and can get it going, I think it would build a lot of confidence for us with going forward in the series."
In the 2025 IBL Semifinals, Garcés got the win over Boon in Game 2 at Bernie Arbour Stadium.
