Cardinals Hold Off Baycats in 2-1 Battle

Barrie, ON - The Barrie Baycats came up just short in a tightly contested pitchers’ duel, falling 2-1 to the Hamilton Cardinals.

Frank Garcés and Hector Yan traded scoreless innings through the first four before Hamilton broke through in the fifth. After Reyny Reyes reached base, Carlos Dominguez launched a two-run home run to left field, giving the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

Barrie answered in the sixth. Ryan Rijo reached with his second hit of the game and later scored when Nolan Machibroda reached on an error, cutting the deficit to 2-1.

The Baycats were unable to push across the tying run against the Hamilton bullpen. Caleb Seroski, Logan Warkentin and Freisis Adames combined for 3.1 scoreless innings, with Adames striking out three in the ninth to earn the save.

Garcés took the loss despite a strong outing, allowing two runs on six hits over 6.1 innings while striking out eight. Boris Vecerka was perfect out of the bullpen, retiring all eight batters he faced and striking out four over 2.2 innings.

Rijo and Brandon Nicoll each went 2-for-4 for Barrie. Yan earned the win for Hamilton after allowing one unearned run on three hits while striking out six over 5.2 innings.