Stingers edged out by Redmen

The Stingers lost on a walk-off pitch at the end of the game. Photos by Derek Swales.

Concordia’s baseball team battled hard but lost on a walk-off pitch to McGill

The Stingers held their own and played as though they were capable of beating a strong Redmen team at Gary Carter Field on Sept. 21, but fell just short, losing by a score of 4-3.

“The team did well enough to win, we just didn’t get enough hits,” said Stingers manager Howie Schwartz.

The Stingers only managed to get three hits the entire game, which was a drastic decline from this past weekend where they got 26 hits in a doubleheader against Carleton. However, the Stingers still never actually trailed in the game until the moment that McGill pinch-runner Zachary Aaron stole home and scored after the wild pitch from Stingers pitcher Sam Belisle-Springer at the end the game.

The Stingers were able to get runners on base due to a few uncharacteristic errors by the Redmen defense and some control issues from McGill starting pitcher Henry Dennis.

“We got good at bats, we just didn’t hit the ball well,” Schwartz said. The Stingers weren’t able to take advantage of those baserunners, stranding the bases loaded in the first inning.

The Stingers however would not blow the same opportunity twice. After loading up the bases again in the second inning, catcher Dario Vincelli hit a bases clearing double to give the Stingers an early 3-0 lead.

Control issues by Concordia starting pitching, leading to a high number of walks has been an issue so far this season. However, Stingers starting pitcher Sami Brochu was firing on all cylinders against the Redmen.

He was cruising along until McGill was finally able to get to him with a few hits in the fourth inning to tie up the game 3-3.

“McGill deserved the runs they got, those were some solid hits and credit to them, you can’t say anything bad about Brochu, he didn’t make any mistake pitches,” Schwartz said. Brochu pitched four and two thirds of an inning, striking out five batters while allowing five hits and two walks.

The Stingers failed to take advantage of baserunners once again, this time in the sixth inning stranding runners on second and third base. This led to McGill squeaking two base hits through the middle of the infield in the seventh inning, eventually leading to the wild pitch walk-off.

“That’s just the way the game goes, sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t, turns out tonight it didn’t go our way,” Schwartz said. Schwartz added that he expects more of the same effort and intensity from his team for the remainder of the season.

It will be a quick turnaround for the Stingers as they will host the Montreal Carabins on Sept. 22 at Gary Carter Field. The Stingers currently sit at a record of 3-4.

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