Royals Beat Majors 7-3

Photo by Gar Fitzgerald

The Guelph Royals remained in the hunt for first place in the Intercounty Baseball League  Saturday night with a 7-3 victory over the London Majors at Hastings Stadium.

Fresh off setting the IBL single-season strikeout record, Guelph Royals’ right-hander Claudio Custodio fanned 13 over seven innings to lead his club to victory.

Custodio (9-0) was charged with all three runs on seven hits and didn’t issue a walk. Brendon Deans and Andrew Case pitched scoreless frames to preserve the win.

Offensively, Dalton Pompey went 3-for-4 with an RBI, two runs and a stolen base. Malik Collymore swiped pair of bags while also scoring twice, Justin Interisano and Josh Garton each drove in a pair of runs, J.D. Williams had an RBI and Brendan Keys went 2-for-2 and scored twice.

For London, Cleveland Brownlee homered, setting a new career season high with his 14th of the season and  125th of his storied career in the  IBL  Byron Reichstein hit a RBI triple and scored on Adam Lawrence’s single.

Jose Arias took the loss, allowing five runs (four earned) on seven hits over six innings. He walked two and struck out four.

London slipped to 25-10 and a game back of first-place Welland. The Royals (24-11) now trail the Majors by a game.