Fans who left Athletic Kulture Stadium at the end of nine innings Tuesday night missed a thrilling finish.
Francisco Hernandez took Deivy Mendez's first pitch of the 10th inning to deep left field, giving the Barrie Baycats a 5-4 walk-off win over the Welland Jackfish and tying the 2025 IBL Finals at one.
The older of the Baycats' tandem of Hernandez brothers has been extremely reliable for the team in the playoffs. After his brother, Brandon, led the Baycats in RBI in the 2024 postseason with 21, Francisco holds the team lead in 2025 with 11. He scored three runs Tuesday and has reached base in every playoff game.
It's a matchup the Baycats second baseman had been successful in before — two-for-two against Mendez in the regular season with two doubles — and he made no mistake on the Jackfish reliever's first-pitch fastball.
INTERCOUNTY BASEBALL LEAGUE FINALS — SERIES TIED 1-1
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WELLAND | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 4 | 5 | 2 |
| BARRIE | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | — | 5 | 8 | 1 |
Dominguez, De Los Santos (7), Mendez (10)(L, 1-1) and Mullen;
Rosado, Henriquez (7), Sano (9)(W, 2-2) and Plumpton;
HRs: WEL — Weisner (1); BAR — McGarry Doyle (2), F. Hernandez (2)
"I knew he was a closer coming in ready to attack guys," Hernandez said postgame. "I just stayed ready and took advantage of the first pitch."
Mendez has lost two games in 2025, both against the Baycats. The other was Barrie's only win over the Jackfish in the regular season, another 10th-inning walk-off.
He entered the game after Pedro De Los Santos continued his dominance against Barrie from the bullpen. After Sunday's win, he threw another 2.2 scoreless innings and struck out three.
"It was Mendez's time to come in and tonight they hit it. It is what it is," Jackfish manager Brian Essery said postgame. "Mendez is our guy, and we'll go back to him next game."
"In the moment, getting a little tired there. I just wanted the game to be over," Noel McGarry Doyle said postgame. "I looked over at our trainer, Kat. I'm like, 'one pitch, we're going home early.'"
"It feels amazing to take it after getting it stolen from us last time."
However, Hernandez would not have had the chance to win the game with that swing had it not been for a mysterious occurrence in the top half of the inning, one that doesn't show in the box score.
After James Smibert doubled to lead off the inning, Brendan Luther bunted him over to third, which brought up Thomas Green.
Green, yet to drive in a run in the playoffs and 0-for-two since entering the game as a pinch hitter for Brandon Hupé in the sixth, faced a 1-2 count against Baycats reliever Carlos Sano.
On the fourth pitch of the at-bat, he asked for a time-out from home plate umpire Jeff Rose, who didn't grant it. The Jackfish third baseman was then forced to foul the pitch away and continued the battle against Sano.
He was just long holding [the ball]," Green said postgame. "That's why there's a pitch clock now in the big leagues and most other leagues, to take pitchers away from doing that and taking a long time. As a hitter you just stand in there, so you try and refresh your mind."
But, on the next pitch, the IBL rookie called time again, and unbeknownst to the crowd, it was granted. However, Rose did not signal anything visibly until after Green swung and hit a flyball into center field. Baycats centerfielder Noel McGarry Doyle caught, and had the play not been called dead, Smibert would've scored the go-ahead run.
"I heard it right away," Matlow said. "I was yelling, 'he called time, he called time!' And Rosie got it right."
"It took a lot of weight off our shoulders," McGarry Doyle said. "I was able to kind of breathe for a second and just evaluate the scenario."
On the next pitch, Sano struck out Green, and followed that with an inning-ending strikeout of Jonah Weisner.
Although Essery was displeased and needed clarification in the half-inning break, no argument came from Green, Smibert, or the Jackfish dugout.
That was not the only opportunity Welland saw slip by in game two. The team walked 10 times collectively and left 12 runners on base. In the first and seventh innings, the Jackfish worked three and four walks respectively, but exited those innings with one run each. Both came in on bases-loaded walks by Smibert.
"We've got to cut that down," Matlow said postgame. "That's giving them free bases, and with their speed, we're basically giving them doubles."
Cesar Rosado started for Barrie and allowed just one hit through his first three of six innings. But he walked five and hit a batter while striking out seven. Ramon Henriquez started his outing just as shaky. Four of his first five walks were issued in the seventh, but he only allowed one run and not a hit while striking out three in relief.
"I still believe in them at the end of the day," Francisco Hernandez said of his team's pitchers. "He got out of the inning and that's all that matters."
"Too many strikeouts," said Essery regarding his team's approach, which yielded 13 such results.
Welland's other runs came in on a leadoff homer by Weisner in the first and a fielder's choice off the bat of Brendan Luther in the sixth.
Meanwhile, McGarry Doyle got Barrie on the board with a third-inning home run off Jackfish starter José Dominguez. Tristan Clarke then drove in a run in the fifth with a groundout. He also had an RBI single in the sixth, before which an error by Green at third base allowed McGarry Doyle to score.
"I just got to thank Clarke for that one, because he's been helping me just get dialed in," McGarry Doyle said of his home run. "I felt like the first couple of rounds [of batting practice], I really wasn't there. We just kind of simplified everything, and now he's got me back to the groove."
The former major leaguer, Dominguez, allowed three earned runs in 6.1 innings while walking one (intentionally) and striking out four in his first career start against Barrie.
"We know we're a crazy talented team and we can bang with anybody," McGarry Doyle said "If we can keep ourselves in the game, whether that be emotionally and physically, we're just going to take advantage of that."
"Game one could have gome our way too, and we could be up 2-0," Matlow said. "The fact that we're 1-1, I think, says a lot about both teams in the series. It's going to be a dogfight."
UP NEXT
Game three of the Finals goes on Thursday in Welland. Jackfish right-hander Euclides Leyer (1-1, 5.17 ERA) will make his first start against the Baycats since 2019. Barrie will start Juan Benítez (1-1, 3.31 ERA).
