Jackfish bounce back to keep season alive
The Welland Jackfish rebounded from one of their toughest losses of the season to keep their hopes of a second consecutive Dominco Cup alive.
The Jackfish staved off elimination with a 9-7 win at Guelph Monday night to even the Intercounty Baseball League best-of-five semifinal playoffs series 2-2.
Game 5 goes Thursday in Welland.
The win came 24 hours after a lopsided 12-3 loss at home in Game 3 that saw the Royals jump out to a 4-0 lead in the second inning.
“We got beat up Sunday night but we responded for sure,” Jackfish manager Brian Essery said.
Essery said the message following the loss was to turn the page and focus on Game 4.
“You just have to flush it,” he said. “That’s what we discussed immediately after the game. Let’s forget about this one. We have to go at it again tomorrow with our backs against the wall.”
Essery had no doubt the Jackfish would respond.
“We know how to do it. We’ve done it in the playoffs already. We had to respond after Game 1 versus Kitchener and after Game 1 against Guelph and we did both of those times. We have a good core group that returned from last year that went down in the final 2-0 and we responded as well.
“We know how to bounce back, no question about it. We have great leadership on the team and they were prepared to play right from the first pitch on.”
Closer Deivy Mendez earned the save Sunday with two innings of work, just 48 hours after pitching a season high 3/23 innings and fanning nine in a win Saturday in Guelph.
“He’s really shouldered the load for us in the two games in Guelph,” Essery said. “Huge credit to Deivy and the whole team knows it too. We live or die with our best. He’s the most dominant pitcher in the league — he might be the most dominant pitcher ever to pitch in this league with the numbers he’s put up. He really took it in those two wins.”
The Jackfish will start Teodoro Ortega in Game 5.
“We have a ton of confidence in him. He’ll give us a chance to win and the bullpen will be fresh. It will be all lined up for Thursday and I know Deivy’s going to want the ball,” Essery said.
Outside of Game 4 starter Ben Abram, it will be all hands on deck Thursday.
“Everyone’s going to be available, outside of Ben,” Essery said. “He was a warrior last night on three day’s rest to give us a chance to win.”
The Jackfish lost only three games at home during the regular season but are 1-3 at Welland Stadium in the playoffs.
“I expect a huge bounce back for us at home,” Essery said. “The crowd is amazing and support us and we want to put on a good show for them.”
The winner Thursday will meet Barrie in a best-of-seven final.
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