A game that seemed over in the fifth inning was a breakout performance for Noah Hull, who homered twice in the Barrie Baycats (14-10) throttling of the Brantford Red Sox (6-19) Friday night at Arnold Anderson Stadium.
Barrie racked up 20+ hits against Brantford for the second time this season, while every player in the team’s starting lineup scored a run.
Frank Garcés picked up his third win of the season after dealing through just five innings. He allowed three hits while posting six strikeouts. Red Sox starter Jeremias Sucre took the loss after allowing 5 earned runs through 1.1 innings.
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| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 16 | 20 | 0 |
 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 2 |
Started for Barrie in the first with Clayton Keyes coming in on a wild pitch by Sucre, followed by Willy Garcia driving in two with a single just a pitch later.
Baycats hitters found it easy against Sucre, who allowed RBI singles by Brandon Hernandez and Keyes before being pulled in favour of Colby Klepper.
Three more came in for Barrie in the third with Nolan Machibroda driving in two, and leaving the inning up 10-0.
Hull led off the fifth with his fourth home run of the season off Graham Tebbit's first pitch of the season. It was his first pitching appearance since 2023, which was also against Barrie.
It was later matched the next inning by Willy Garcia who let some frustration out on a moonshot home run to left field, his fourth of the year. He said post game that he didn't feel the ball
Noah Law came on in relief, the fourth of seven Red Sox pitchers in the game, and allowed a sacrifice fly before Garcés came on to finish his outing.
The Dominican lefty needed just 60 pitches to get through five shutout innings, putting himself in line for the win and giving way to Johnathan Warden in relief.
"He probably kept going, but let's be reasonable," Baycats manager Josh Matlow said postgame. "It's one of those opportunities that you get a chance to have just a light day and get some other guys in and get them some reps."
Warden struggled to start his outing, allowing the first three batters of the sixth inning to reach and score.
Ten Red Sox hitters came up in the inning including Brody Black who hit a three-run triple before scoring himself. After six, Barrie led 13-5
From there the game continued to feel slow with the large gap, but Barrie added on anyway with Noel McGarry Doyle driving in two in the seventh with a single.
"The energy levels got down because the game kind of got boring in some aspects," Noah Hull said postgame. "They punched back at us so it was good to have a quick answer back."
Hull hit another solo homer in the eighth, capping off the victory that Ramon Henriquez closed with two scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Arguably his best outing of the season.
Everyone in the lineup produced in this game, and it felt very much like a full team victory for the Baycats.
"It's infectious," Matlow said. "There's a lot of new guys, playing 24 games now together and they're starting to roll and starting to pick each other up and play for each other."
"It's nice when you've got guys in front of you and behind you who you trust with your life," Hull said. "It's easy to go do your thing when you've got guys who can pick you up if you don't succeed in that moment."
It was Hull's first multi-homer game in the IBL, and his confidence is seemingly at an all-time high continuing a strong first half, especially now on a 10-game hit streak.
"It's definitely a little easier when you're playing more consistently and you're seeing pitches every day," he said. If my role changes in the future or something happens I'll be ready for anything. But having the consistent at-bats right now, it's been good."
Hull is three games short of matching his games-played total from 2024, and two away from matching his hits total. Without hitting a home run last season, he's already at five this year.
CLOSER AT THE DISH
Baycats pitcher Carlos Sano pinch hit for Garcia in the eighth inning and grounded out, dropping his IBL career batting average to .500.
His first career at bat in the IBL came last year in a similar situation, up big late in Brantford August 3. He got a hit off Sam Worthen in that game's ninth inning. Sucre also lost that day to Barrie after a rough start.
KEY STAT
This was just Garcés' second-career start against Brantford, both on the road. After Friday, he's pitched 14 innings without allowing an earned run and struck out 21.
His only other start against Brantford was in 2018 when he set a career high with 15 strikeouts in a 1-0 shutout victory.
UP NEXT
Both teams play each other in the second game of a home-and-home series Saturday at Athletic Kulture Stadium. Juan Benítez (3-1, 3.58 ERA) will start for Barrie, while Brantford will give the ball to Connor Irvine (1-3, 5.88 ERA).
"Hopefully, we can get out to a lead and get on them early," Matlow said. "I'm sure it's quite deflating for them to not only take a little bit of a beating there tonight, but then now they've got to come back to our ballpark and take that drive. We'll be ready for them."
