Bolton Brewers sweep doubleheader in Midland and edge Orillia 7-6 

By Jim Stewart 

It was a three-win week for the first-place Bolton Brewers and all three of the club's victories featured come-from-behind rallies.

Bolton overcame a significant six-run deficit on Tuesday night in Orillia and edged the Majors 7-6 in a thriller at J.B. Tudhope Memorial Park.

In Midland on Saturday, the Brewers fell behind 3-0 and 1-0 in Games 1 and Game 2, respectively, but rallied in both contests with big innings to overcome the Mariners 7-3 and 7-1 at Tiffin Park.

In Orillia, Brewers' starter Carson Burns yielded a six-spot in the third inning, but held the home team scoreless for the remainder of the contest to earn the complete game W.

Bolton Head Coach Mike Wallace assessed his starter's performance and Orillia's effective hitting: “Credit to them. Carson was making his pitches, but they were finding the gaps in our defense with hit and runs. Orillia had good execution and I couldn't find fault with Carson getting ground balls with a runner on first.”

Burns struck out nine Majors over his seven innings of work. 

While Burns steadied Bolton's ship after the rough waters of the third inning, the Brewers' bats pecked away at Majors' starter Brett Jones. Although Jones held the Brewers in check with three innings of masterful work, the Brewers plated one at the top of the fourth, two at the top of five, three more to tie the game at the top of six, and Logan Hart scored in the seventh to provide the winning margin.

Coach Wallace highlighted the timely contributions of three of his players.

“Logan had two big hits for us. Josh Catalanotto had a big pinch hit RBI to drive in Logan for the winning run in the seventh. It was a total team effort to pull out the win, including a great defensive play by Mario Accardo who started a game-clinching double play for us.”

Following the startling road win in Orillia and a rainout on Thursday, the Brewers travelled to Midland for a double-dip with the Mariners on Saturday.

Victor Moguel pitched six effective innings and Mateo Stothers struck out the side in his inning of relief to lead the Brewers to a tidy 7-1 victory in Game 2 of the doubleheader.

The home side took a 1-0 first inning lead, but the Brewers tied the contest at the top of the second inning. Bolton put up a four-spot in the fifth and added two more runs in the sixth to create their six-run margin of victory.  Dan Amodeo, Reid Deibert, and Amin Juarez spearheaded the Brewers' 12-hit attack with two knocks each. 

In Game 1 of the doubleheader, Ben Sterritt, Brett Chater, Nate Drury, and Marco DiRoma packed their thunder sticks in their vehicles for the trek to Tiffin Park and hit one home run each to lead the Brewers to a 7-3 win.

Coach Wallace couldn't recall the last time the Brewers hit four home runs in a game.

“To see four home runs go out at Tiffin Park in Midland was something you don't often see. It's the most in recent memory and made up for the slow pace that we started the game. The bats really woke up.”

Aaron Dzib threw a complete game to earn the W.  Dzib scattered ten hits over seven innings of work and struck out nine Mariners.

Sticking to a familiar script for the week, the home team jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one inning of play, but the visiting Brewers plated five runs at the top of the third inning and showed off their prodigious long ball power.  Bolton added two more runs at the top of the fifth inning to scuttle the Mariners.

Ben Sterritt contributed mightily to the Brewers' high-octane offence by collecting three hits, knocking in three RBI, scoring two runs, and stealing two bases.

Sterritt's three-run homer cued the Brewers' third comeback victory of the week.

Coach Wallace opined on Sterritt's season-long hot streak during which he is hitting .630: “Ben's locked in the two-hole and providing protection for Brett Chater in the leadoff spot. He's got it going and I hope you have him in your North Dufferin Baseball League fantasy pool.”

With the win in Orillia and the Saturday sweep in Midland, Bolton improved its league-leading record to 10-2 and created a four-point margin over the second-place Lisle Astros. The baseball-blistering Brewers have outscored their opponents 119-41 in the squad's first 12 games.

Bolton's next home game is Thursday night at North Hill Park at 7:30 where the third-place Ivy Rangers will provide the opposition.