Royals Suffer Blowout Loss to Streaking Maple Leafs
TORONTO - First loss of the season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and their scorching offence blew out the Guelph Royals 12-2 on Sunday afternoon to improve to 3-1 on the season.
With the loss, the Royals drop to 1-1.
Toronto starter Sam Greene was dominant, throwing five shutout and hitless innings on just three walks.
The second-year IBL pitcher struck out six Guelph batters.
Maple Leafs third basemen Johnathan Solazzo led the offensive charge for the home side, going three-for-four with a home run and five runs batted in.
Guelph starter Yomar Concepcion took the loss despite a solid outing, allowing one earned run on three hits and two walks in four innings pitched.
The La Romana native struck out four Toronto batters.
GUELPH - 2-3-4
TORONTO - 12-8-0
BIGGEST PLAY OF THE GAME: Up 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Maple Leafs right fielder Greg Carrington hit a three-run home run to blow the game wide open for Toronto.
BY THE NUMBERS...
1. Another clean inning from Guelph reliever Yuki Narita, who continues to impress in the early stages of his IBL career.
1. The first home run of the Royals season goes to J.D Williams, who hit a one-out home run in the top of the sixth inning to end the Maple Leafs no-hit bid.
7. The Royals drew seven walks on the afternoon, giving them 21 through the first two games of the season.
11. 11 strikeouts against the Royals on Sunday, who managed just three hits in the contest.
INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM...
Royals manager Dino Roumel on Concepcion's and Narita's outings: "Yomar did some very positive things, I thought. I thought Yuki was outstanding, too. With Yomar, we should have played a little better defensively behind him, but that is the one thing about this park. You can't give extra bases here, because an error or a walk turns into a three-run inning. I thought that is what happened today and that is what I told him."
Roumel on trying to win games without key players in the lineup: "We have to fight for each other. When you are missing guys like Conner Morro and Justin Interisano, your entire lineup changes -- it is a big drop-off. But we have to keep playing. Our pitching staff has to keep us in games and our lineup has to get runners on and in."
Roumel on the Leafs surging start: "When I was managing here, every guy in the lineup could hit home runs. We broke an all-time record one year for errors in the playoffs, yet we rolled to a championship because we had guys who could hit home runs. That seems to be the case with this lineup. They are a very close-knit team and I think they are better than they were last year -- I do not think anyone would argue that. And they have a player in [shortstop Jose] Vinicio who is a sparkplug. You can't let him get on base because he is the one who instigates everything. At the end of the day, they looked in mid-season form and we looked like a team who could use a couple of games to get our feet under us. We have some big games coming up next weekend and that will tell us a lot about where we are at and what we need to do to get better."
LOOKING AHEAD...
The Royals are off until Thursday when they begin a home-and-home series with the Welland Jackfish in Welland. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:25.
The team returns to Guelph for their home opener on Saturday afternoon against the Jackfish. The first pitch is scheduled for 2 pm.