Battle of Caledon: Brewers sweep season series with Cardinals in 16-11 slugfest victory at Taylor Fields

August 6, 2026 · 0 Comments

By Jim Stewart

Brett Chater drove in six runs to impel the Bolton Brewers to a 16-11 win over the Caledon Cardinals in NDBL action on last week at Taylor Fields.

The victory improved the Brewers’ final regular season record to 13-8-1, sealed a two-game series sweep over the much-improved Cardinals, and clinched fifth place behind pennant-winning Owen Sound, New Lowell, Ivy, and Orillia.

The second-year Cardinals locked down a playoff spot on the final weekend of the regular season and finished tied for seventh with the Midland Mariners in the twelve-team Senior Division with a 9-12-1 record.

It was a wild one between the cross-town rivals at their “Ballpark on the Parkway” on Monday night.

The Brewers—playing as visitors on their shared home diamond—amassed a 12-0 lead by the top of the fourth.

However, Dalton Clarke’s Cardinals revealed their season-long pluckiness by plating three runs at the bottom of four and five more runs in the fifth to narrow Bolton’s lead to 12-8.

Former Brewer Josh Catalanotto did most of the damage with a Grand Slam at the bottom of the fifth to pull Caledon to within four runs.

The Brewers responded with four more runs of their own at the top of the sixth inning to expand their lead to 16-8.

The never-say-die Cardinals put up another crooked number with three runs at the bottom of six, but the Brewers protected their 16-11 lead to secure the W. Bolton Head Coach Mike Wallace praised the Cardinals’ season-to-season improvement: “Last year, they struggled, but this year they put together some nice wins early in the season. They beat Owen Sound which is a good victory. They’ve got good hitters and young teams don’t go down without a fight. It would be a great NDBL final between the Cardinals and the Brewers. It would cut down on our teams’ travel costs to have everything at Taylor Fields.”

As per their custom during the 2026 campaign, the upper third of the Brewers’ lineup preyed on starting pitching.

The Brew Crew’s Three-Headed Hydra—comprised of shortstop Brett Chater, centerfielder Ben Sterritt, and third baseman Jack Larmer—combined for ten RBI and six hits, including four for extra bases.

Sterritt and Chater went yard to provide exclamation points to the victory.

Head Coach Mike Wallace offered praise for the 1-2-3 hitters in his lineup as his club steams into the playoffs: “That’s our three-headed monster for sure. They’re going to stay 1-2-3 heading into the playoffs. Justin [Manabanan] will slide into the four-slot. I’ll likely be hitting fifth and Carter Burnside sixth. We’ll be a strong hitting lineup. The Death Star is fully-loaded.”

The Brewers’ dangerous hitting lineup, to which Coach Wallace alluded, looms large for any opponent and it manifested itself during The Battle of Caledon. Catcher Logan Hart exemplified the depth of Bolton’s batting order. Hart provided the Brewers with a gritty performance out of the eight-spot with a two-run double, three runs scored, and two hit-by-pitches. He scored on each of his forays on the base paths. In all, the Brewers garnered five RBI from the 6-7-8-9 spots.

Obscured amid the 27 runs scored and the 23 hits accrued by both hard-hitting clubs was a strong start by Bolton hurler Charlie Hughes.

The first-year Brewer struck out six and held the Cards to two hits in his four innings of work, during which he yielded three earned runs, and left the game with a nine-run lead to earn the W. Coach Wallace praised his starter’s solid performance: “Charlie’s one of the unsung heroes of the club. The offence took center stage tonight, but the numbers that Charlie’s put up for us are remarkable. He went to work and we were up 12-3 when we went to bullpen arms that needed work before the playoffs.”

Although the Brewers have oodles of momentum heading into the playoffs versus the Orillia Majors, Coach Wallace expressed his disappointment that his club finished in fifth place at the end of the regular season.

“We’re not happy finishing outside of first or second. I can’t tell you the last time we didn’t start the first round of the playoffs at home, but our rough start to the season was a wake-up call for us and now we’ll focus on winning Game 1 on the road with good at-bats. If we play fundamental defense and our pitchers pound the strike zone, we have a good chance of winning the series versus Orillia.”

After opening the best-of-five series in Orillia on August 4, the Brewers will host the fourth-place Majors (15-6-1) for Game 2 on Friday, August 7. First pitch at Taylor Fields will be 7.30 p.m.

The Caledon Cardinals open their first playoff series in franchise history against the pennant-winning Baysox (17-5-0) in Owen Sound on Thursday, August 6 at 8:30 p.m. The Cards host the Sox for Game 2 of the best-of-five series on Saturday, August 8 at 2 p.m. at Taylor Fields.