WINDSOR, N.S. — For baseball fans in Windsor and West Hants, this month has seen some great plays so far.
A number of fans were in attendance at the Tremain Crescent ball field in Windsor June 10.
The Windsor Knights improved to 4-0 on the season in the Nova Scotia Intermediate Baseball League with back-to-back wins over the Pictou County Royals, who dropped to 3-3 on the season.
In the opening game, the Royals’ Tommy Hayman went deep to left field in the first inning to give the Royals a 1-0 lead.
The Knights stormed back scoring five of their own runs in the bottom of the second inning on seven hits. Joe Beaton and Ryan Clarke led off with back-to-back singles, Beaton’s being an infield hit in which he outran the throw from third base.
Austin Sabean, Paul Humphreys, Alex Patterson, Devan Duffield and Derek Hart all connected for hits.
Sabean, Patterson and Dunfield’s were all two-baggers with Dunfield driving in a pair.
The score stayed 5-1 for Windsor until the top of the fifth when the Royals scored to get within three runs.
After a scoreless fourth inning, the Knights connected for three base hits in the bottom of the sixth inning but failed to get any of them home. Then, in the top of the seventh, the Royals finally got to Knights pitcher Dave Swindall, who was making his first start of the season after being injured for a lengthy period of time during 2017.
The Royals collected a pair of base hits before the next two batters were retired.
Swindall was then replaced by Alex Sabean, who recorded a blown save after the first three batters he faced walked, doubled to deep-right centre, and singled, which gave the Royals a 6-5 lead going into the bottom of the seventh.
The Knights were not finished, however, as they scored twice on a single by Alex Patterson — his third hit of the afternoon — and walks to Derek Hart, Cory Whitney and Elliot Dickson-Green. That loaded the bases for Tristan Horner’s single that plated the winning run and gave the Knights their 7-6 victory.
In the second game of the double header, Windsor beat Pictou 6-5.
This game see-sawed all afternoon with the Knights finally taking a 5-2 lead after four-and-a-half innings. After six innings, the Royals managed to tie it up 5-5.
As they did in the first game, Windsor scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Austin Sabean homered for Windsor while Whitney went three for four and scored three runs for the Knights. Beaton went two for four while also collecting three RBIs.
Patterson pitched the opening three and two-third innings before Humphreys pitched the remaining innings to garner the win in relief.
Other NSIBL games
The Hantsport Shamrocks split their doubleheader with the Truro Bearcats, winning the first game 7-2 and losing the second 3-1.
In the first game, Chad Munroe collected a pair of singles and drove in a run as the Shamrocks improved to 5-2 on the season.
Jordan Martin doubled and Matt Russell had a pair of base hits to assist with the win. Luke Thimot gave up eight hits in recording the pitching win.
In the second contest, the Shamrocks collected three hits but scored their only run in the first inning on Martin’s sacrifice fly.
The Noel Road Blue Jays, the defending league champions from 2017, are 0-2 to start the season but they were scheduled to play three games in four days between June 13-16. The three games were all against the Kennetcook Braves.
The Shamrocks have the best run differential to start the season as they are at +31 while the 1-7 Kennetcook Braves have the worst at -56.
Upcoming games
On June 24, catch the Windsor Knights in action when they host the Kennetcook Braves for a 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. doubleheader.
The Hantsport Shamrocks will take to the road to visit the Blue Jays on June 24 for a doubleheader at the same time.
On June 30, the Shamrocks then host the Noel Road Blue Jays at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
