OSHAWA, ON - Now up to six wins in six games to start the season, the Durham College men's baseball team beat the Fanshawe Falcons in two high scoring matchups.
Game one of the afternoon at Kinsmen Civic Memorial Stadium was very lopsided from the beginning. Ryan Mattes (Whitby, ON), Cole Cote (Welland, ON), Jacob Mahoney (Toronto, ON) and Eddie Borutskie (Newtonville, ON) all advanced across the plate in the first inning to take an early 4-0 lead.
The Lords piled on six more runs in a long second inning, with all four aforementioned players scoring again for the second time in as many innings as their turn in the batting order came around once again.
Eventually going into the fourth inning up by 14, Fanshawe earned a run to ruin the shutout. However, four more scores from the Lords in the bottom half of the frame had the game 18-1 and ended it in five innings.
Nick King (Whitby, ON) had the win on the mound, pitching 4.0 innings and striking out two batters, while only walking one and conceding one run. Ben Spunde (Elmira, ON) came in to finish things up, allowing only one hit against four batters faced.
Cote was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, also scoring three runs and adding three RBI's. Borutskie and Nolan Hartley (Oshawa, ON) also each contributed a trio of runs.
The second game started off light as both sides scored one run in the opening inning and Durham took a slight lead in the second as Zach Rivers (Oshawa, ON) and Cote crossed the plate to make it 3-1.
Looking to prove they're better than the team we saw in the first game, the Falcons' bats exploded in the top of the third - generating six runs to take a big 7-2 lead.
After adding one more in the next frame with an RBI double to make it 8-2, Durham's bats came alive with 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth. Going through the batting order, Aaron Sprague (Oshawa, ON), Baylan MacKeller (Courtice, ON) and Tristan Deslauriers (Oshawa, ON) all scored twice in the same inning.
The scoreboard read 14-8 in Durham's favour heading into the top of the sixth, where Fanshawe tied it in a six run inning featuring a grand slam. After the seventh inning failed to produce any runs, the game required extra innings.
The Falcons went ahead in the top of the eighth with an RBI double. Durham had a response in the bottom half of the inning as Cruz Lopez (Brooklin, ON) put the ball in play with the bases loaded to allow MacKeller to score.
In dramatic fashion, Borutskie hit a single with Rivers in scoring position for the 16-15 walk-off win to stay undefeated through six games.
Durham currently sit on top of the OCAA men's baseball standings with a 6-0 record. Scoring a massive 86 runs to this point, the Lords are averaging 14.3 runs scored and 4.6 runs against per game.
The Lords now play on the road until October, beginning with a trip to Windsor on Saturday, September 23 for a meeting with the defending OCAA champion St. Clair Saints.
