Rough road trip for Brewers with three losses in a row in Creemore and Owen Sound

May 21, 2026 · 0 Comments

By Jim Stewart

The undefeated Owen Sound Baysox swept a doubleheader from the Bolton Brewers on Saturday afternoon in NDBL action at Tom Williams Baseball Field.

The home side captured the lid-lifter 8-3 and rallied to take the second game 12-7.

Brewers’ Head Coach Mike Wallace described Owen Sound’s comeback effort in Game 2: “We were up 6-5 going into the seventh, but we were out of arms. We had to use Brett [Chater] for five innings—to bring him in from shortstop—and he was out of gas after playing two games. You don’t want to have a thin bullpen going into the second game of a doubleheader.”

Coach Wallace was pleased with his team’s power in Game 2.

“When you look at it, we’ve been scoring runs in our first four games. We hit four home runs against Owen Sound, which will be one of the teams to beat. They’re very good at home and they ran out two of the best arms in the league on Saturday. I wish we would have had more men on base for the homers. Amin Juarez hit a three-run shot, and Ben Sterritt, Reid Deibert, and Justin Malabanan each hit one out, but they were three solo shots.”

While the Brewers demonstrated more timely hitting in Game 2, it was the lack of production with runners on base that cost Bolton the first game of the doubleheader in Owen Sound.

Coach Wallace explained: “We left a small village on base and couldn’t get them across the plate.”

“Matteo [Stothers] threw really well, but our defense let him down. So many of Owen Sound’s runs were unearned.”

On Tuesday night, the Brewers commenced their three-game road trip with an 8-5 loss to the Creemore Padres at Gowan Memorial Park.

Tom Gateman led the Padres’ 15-hit attack with four knocks. Gateman and Eric Orser scored two runs each for Creemore.

The Padres jumped on Brewers’ starter Matteo Stothers for nine hits and five runs over three innings.

Bolton reliever Carson Burns didn’t fare much better—surrendering six hits and three runs over two innings of work.

Padres’ starter Eric Jones scattered eight hits and five runs over six innings to earn the W.

Chater, the Brewers’ leadoff hitter and 2025 League MVP, paced his squad’s offence with three hits and two runs scored. Coach Wallace appraised his veteran shortstop’s offensive performance versus the Padres.

“He was really good. Brett was dialed in on Tuesday night. Even his outs were loud. One of his outs was a deep fly ball to centre field that almost made its way out of the park.”

The Brewers led 2-0 at the top of the third inning, but Creemore plated three runs in the bottom of the third and added five more in the fourth to take an 8-4 lead.

The Brewers added a run at the top of the sixth, but that was as close as they could get as Jones held the fort in the complete game victory.

Despite three consecutive losses in Creemore and Owen Sound, Coach Wallace has seen some positives in the Brewers’ first four games of the season and delineated the club’s needed areas of improvement.

“The hitting’s been coming along—a lot faster than I thought it would with so little practice due to the wet Spring. We have to be better with pitching, especially giving up walks. We gave up seven walks in Game 2 and five walks in Game 1. You can’t give a good team like Owen Sound extra baserunners. It comes back to haunt you.”

The Brewers will look to bounce back from their unusual 1-3 start to the season when they welcome the Clarksburg Blues to brand new Taylor Fields for a doubleheader on Saturday, May 23.

Coach Wallace offered the keys to beating the Blues: “Our hitting has come along so we need to stay where we are with scoring runs, but we need to handle pitches on Saturday, especially with runners in scoring position. Our pitching and defence need to improve—we need to cut down on giving out free bases, we need to make the routine plays to support our pitching staff, and overall, we need to clean it up versus Clarksburg.”

First pitch of Saturday afternoon’s NDBL doubleheader against the Clarksburg Blues is 1 p.m.