Veterans set the tone as Royals win their season opener

The Guelph Royals' return to Intercounty Baseball League is off to a great start thanks to several veterans who powered the ballclub past the Hamilton Cardinals 6-4 Sunday afternoon at Bernie Arbour Memorial Stadium.

The Royals starter Claudio Custodio (1-0) turned in a dominant seven innings allowing just one hit, walking none on a tidy 100 pitch performance.

Sean Reilly bookended the scoring with a two-out double in the first and closed out the scoring for the Royals in the 7th with a three-run homer, and finished with four RBIs.

Jeff MacLeod clubbed a solo homer in the second inning   Dalton Pompey had three singles and a walk.  Darius Barlas added a pair of singles.

Chris Lazar (0-1) took the loss for the Cardinals working five innings allowing two runs, on five hits. He walked two and struck out three.

The Cardinals rallied late to the tune of four runs, three off Jorge de la Paez in the eighth inning before Nelson Mercado notched his first save of the season. 

Mercado pitched 1.1 innings allowing a run on a pair of hits and tallied a pair of strikeouts.

Robin Fox - Pappas led the Cardinals at the plate with the lone hit off of Custodio a single in the 3rd inning and added an RBI double in the 8th.

Monday afternoon, the Royals are back in action against the defending IBL champions the London Majors. Game time in London is 1:05 pm