The Concordia Stingers men’s baseball team finished off a strong week by clinching the second-place spot in their division with a 13-3 pummeling of McGill last Monday night at Cote St. Luc’s Pierre Elliot Trudeau Park.
The Stingers, in a week in which they played four games in five days, walked away with three victories, ending the regular season with a 7-5 record.
Concordia was under a lot of pressure to perform after losing two games to McGill last week.
They did not disappoint as pitcher James Robinson continued to show-off the Maroon and Gold’s outstanding pitching rotation by racking up six strikeouts, while allowing one run in three innings of work.
Adam Little put up a two-run homer in a five-run first inning as Concordia put the game out of McGill’s reach early.
The victory now sets up a first round playoff series against McGill next weekend with the first best-out-of-three game taking place on Friday, to be followed by a double header on Saturday. All games will be played at Trudeau Park.
In the meantime, Head Coach Howard Schwartz is confident in his team’s ability to perform in the playoffs.
“We could have done better than a 7-5 record,” Schwartz said. It is worth noting that Concordia has not had its full line-up available throughout the regular season.
But that will change with the playoffs. “I’m very confident,” said Schwartz.
“We’re going to have a pretty stacked team.”
Here’s a look back at the Maroon and Gold’s busy week:
The first game of the week was a walk in the park against John Abbott College on Thursday night as the Stingers beat them soundly 8-1.
Pitcher Trevor Lemieux rebounded from a 5-2 loss to McGill last week, coming away with a solid four-inning performance that included the retirement of the first eight batters that he faced, just two hits and six strikeouts.
Andrew Glowacki was one of the team’s major offensive contributors as he went three for four appearances at the plate with one run batted in.
Nick Palko was another, going two for three with two doubles.
Closing pitcher Nick Stewart easily finished off the Islanders when he came in to close the seventh inning with three ground ball outs.
The meet with JAC was simply a warm-up for the much-anticipated double header with Concordia’s biggest rival in the world of baseball: the Laval Rouge et Or.
The first game hardly lived up to any expectations. Unless, of course, one was expecting to see Stinger rookie pitcher Chris Dyer toss a masterful no-hitter in a 10-0 Concordia win which included nine strikeouts.
The Maroon and Gold then looked forward to winning their third straight game in the second half of the double header but things slipped away early after starting pitcher Ben Myers fell behind with the bases loaded in the third inning.
Already in a tough spot, right-fielder Andrew Glowacki then aggravated a knee injury from an earlier play in an attempt to track down an in-flight ball.
His knee buckled and the ball bounced off the top of his glove. Not only was Glowacki injured on the play but three Laval runs would also come into score.
Jameison Boulanger, a junior elite pitcher, would come in to replace Myers and was impressive in three innings of work, not giving up one single hit.
Concordia was not able to rally as Laval’s three runs made a world of a difference, causing the Stingers to lose their third game by a 4-2 score.