Baycats Back to .500 Behind Garcés Gem in Hamilton

Hamilton, ON – The Barrie Baycats defeated the Hamilton Cardinals 7–2 Sunday afternoon at Bernie Arbour Stadium. It was business as usual for Baycats ace Frank Garcés, who delivered an eight-inning, two-run performance, lifting Barrie back to .500 heading into July.

The key to victory for this group is scoring first—something they’ve done in all nine of their wins so far in 2025. Tyler Plumpton’s sacrifice fly in the second got the visitors on the board as Tristan Clarke crossed home. Clarke is now batting .313 after another multi-hit effort. Alex Wickett drove in Noah Hull for the second Barrie run—his first IBL run batted in. Clarke cashed in the third Barrie run with a groundout in the fifth.

Garcés had another perfect game bid going through four, but Tyler Duncan ruined it with a screamer of a line drive that whistled past Garcés’s waist into centrefield in the bottom of the fifth. He later came in to score on a John Solazzo two-RBI single that cut the lead to 3–2. That was all for the Hamilton bats on Sunday.

Barrie’s lefty punched out 11 Cardinals through eight innings, needing 118 pitches to do so, but was as dominant as can be—striking out the hot bat of Brandon Nicoll to end his outing. Carlos Sano racked up the save and secured a 2–0 weekend for his team.

FINAL SCORE: Baycats 7, Cardinals 2

NEXT UP: The Baycats travel to the Forest City on Canada Day (Tuesday) to take on the Majors at Labatt Park. First pitch is slated for 6:05 p.m.