Series Will Go down to the Wire

The Toronto Cardinals squandered a 7-1 lead before coming back in the bottom of the 8th to defeat the York Diamonds 9-8 last night at 9th Line to even their semifinal series at 2 games apiece.
Starter Marcus Belardi threw well for 7 1/3 innings before giving way to Sean Conlin, who picked up his sixth win of the season, after allowing the go-ahead runs, he struck out 4 batters. Phil Vazzano continued to be a thorn in York's side with a three-run double. Ryan Wakelin returned to action with three hits, including a triple.

For York, ace Eric Foley made his third start of the series and deserved a better fate. Foley did reach a milestone as his third strikeout of the evening was the 700th of his Diamonds' career.

Offensively York had three hits and three RBI from Don Cantwell, three hits from Rudy Naraine, a home run from Neil Parekh (his 48th as a Diamond), and two hits apiece from Rob Fraser and Paul Freeman.

Skipper Paul Freeman met with the media on the porch of his lovely, but tiny North York townhome and had these comments: "Of course I am upset that we lost, but you can't fault the effort. We made a tremendous comeback again but just could not finish it off. It has been a great series to be a part of, good pitching, solid defense, and pretty good hitting. Two key stats were last night with runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs, we had a combined 7 popups or strikeouts and they only had 3. As well in this series we have had 22 more baserunners, but only scored 8 more runs. If we are going to win this series we are going to have start delivering with guys on base and having more at bats that serve a purpose instead of more popups and strikeouts. Everybody in our dressing room believes we can still win this if we come up with a great effort on Thursday."

Date: August 31, 2004     Time: 7:30pm      Venue: 9th Line