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Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Leafs Win! Leafs Win!

It seems the Toronto Maple Leafs can win, unfortunately for some it is in baseball and not hockey. On Wednesday August 29, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Brantford Red Sox 13-5 in game seven of the Intercounty Baseball League championship to win the title.

Brantford won the first two games of the series with identical 9-6 scores and looked like they would easily defend their 2006 title but then Toronto woke up. The Maple Leafs took the next three games (8-6, 6-5, 13-8) to put the strangle hold on the Red Sox. Game six of the series, to be played in Brantford, was postponed due to rain twice before they finally played it on August 26. A determined Brantford team came out swinging and jumped out to a 10-0 lead after 2 innings on route to a punishing 13-1 victory to force a seventh game.

The first half of game seven was kept close, with the lead swinging between teams. Brantford scored first in the top of the third before Toronto tied it in the bottom half of the same inning. Toronto then took the lead in the bottom of the fourth while a two run tally only to see it disappear in the top of the fifth when Brantford tied the game with two runs of their own. In the bottom of the fifth, Toronto took the lead for good with four runs.

Paul Spoljaric pitched 61/3 innings for Toronto to earn the win while Jeremy Walker lead the offensive charge with two two-run homeruns. Joe Colameco earned playoff MVP honours. That was the first championship for Toronto since 2002 and was Toronto’s eighth title since 1946.

Picture originally posted on the IBL website.

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