By Jim Stewart

The Bolton Brewers seized control of their opening round playoff series with Orillia by shutting out the Majors 6-0 on Tuesday night at Udell Park and 3-0 on Friday night at Taylor Fields.

The Brewers' success all season has been predicated on bludgeoning the opposition with their powerful batting lineup, but the seven-time League champs have flipped the script to start their series versus Orillia.

Great starting pitching from Charlie Hughes and Carson Burns combined with excellent defence and some timely situational hitting comprised the winning recipe in the opening games of the best-of-five playoff series.

The fourteen consecutive shutout innings thrown by Hughes and Burns were even more remarkable in that the Brewers surrendered twenty-four runs in two regular season losses to the Majors: 10-9 in late-May and 14-5 in mid-June.

The story of Game 1 in Orillia on Tuesday was the dominant start by Hughes whose complete game three-hitter commenced his team's playoff push.  The Brewers' young hurler struck out eleven Majors and walked only one.

Head Coach Mike Wallace praised Hughes's pristine opening game performance:  “Charlie's a special pitcher.  His rhythm and tempo were incredible.  The walk he allowed was a four-pitch walk to start the game.  After that, he pushed the easy button.” 

Brewers' hitters got to Orillia starter Ian Leggault during his three innings of work by plating four runs and collecting eight hits.

Bolton augmented their 4-0 lead by adding one run in each of the sixth and seventh innings to secure their six-run margin of victory. Brett Chater and Amin Juarez spearheaded the Brewers' 12-hit attack with three knocks each.

Hard-hitting Jack Larmer drove in three runs with two hits and a sacrifice fly.  Coach Wallace complimented Larmer's season-long production at the plate.

“He's been amazing all season in the three-spot.  This is Jack's first full season with us.  He's done a tremendous job at third and first base, too.”

On Friday night, the series moved to Taylor Fields and Burns took over where Hughes left off. The righthander shut down the visitors with a 1-2-3 top of the first and struck out the side in the second inning. Burns scattered seven hits and escaped two jams at the top of the fifth and sixth innings.  

The Brewers bats were rendered similarly quiet by soft-throwing Majors lefty Luke Earle. The Brewers finally got to Earle at the bottom of four when the red-hot Juarez notched his fifth knock of the series with a single up the middle. Coach Wallace followed by lashing a one-out double that settled against the centerfield fence and plated the fleet-footed Juarez from first. 

The turning point of the contest took place at the top of the fifth. With the bases loaded and one out, Burns protected the Brewers' precarious 1-0 lead by inducing a pop fly to sure-handed Ben Sterritt in centerfield and a weak grounder that second baseman Justin Malananan flipped to first baseman Larmer to stifle the prospective Majors rally. After surrendering a lead-off double in the sixth, the unflappable Burns retired the next three Orillia hitters with a 4-3 groundout, a strikeout swinging, and a popup behind first base that Larmer surrounded and secured.

The Brewers gave their starter some breathing room at the bottom of the sixth by plating two runs.  Burns helped himself with a lead-off single, Amin Juarez stroked his sixth hit of the series and third single of the game, and Wallace dropped a textbook bunt down the first base line that stopped on the infield turf--advancing Burns and Juarez. Carter Burnside smashed a shot up the middle of the infield to plate Burns and Paul Cota looped a popup RBI that landed fair at first base and side-spun into foul territory—scoring Juarez.

Returning to the bump at the top of the seventh with a 3-0 lead, Burns earned his CG victory by inducing a ground out to Larmer at first, surrendering a one-out single, and then silencing the potential uprising by the high-scoring Majors by coaxing a lineout to Cota in left field and a pop up to Sterritt in centre.  Coach Wallace applauded his Game 2 starter's performance:  “Carson was just awesome right from the get-go. The top of their lineup is similar to ours so for him to navigate through those hitters was impressive. Carson is one of our durable guys.  He's got the stamina to keep it going and throw complete games.”

Wallace offered some insights into his game-winning RBI double in the fourth inning as he praised Orillia's crafty hurler and noted his team's surging momentum:  “I've known Luke as a pitcher for a long time.  He's very good. I was trying to stay inside the baseball on the double.  He was landing his curveball and had great fastball command.  It took some great situational hitting to beat him tonight.  It was a pitcher's duel out there, but we have a strong feeling in the dugout.  We're playing better now—excellent pitching and defence.  Our lineup wasn't as productive as usual tonight, but our pitching and defence carried us in Game 2.”

Burns echoed his Player Coach's assessment of the keys to victory that have given the Brewers a stranglehold on the NDBL quarterfinal series: “We carried over our dominant pitching and solid defence from Tuesday night.  We struggled a bit tonight with their pitcher—his curve kept our big hitters off balance and he was pitching backwards with fastballs.  It's been all about the intensity of the playoffs.  We don't want to go back to Orillia more than twice.  Our veteran guys have been here before.  Our lineup is high quality and the defence has been great so far in the series.  This is a far different team than the one that lost to Orillia in the cold in late-May.”

As Burns noted, the Brewers have warmed up at the right time of the season and will look to sweep the Majors during Game 3 of the series that returns to Orillia.