Panthers walk off Royals in Highway 7 classic
KITCHENER – Yunior Ibarra played the hero role, sending the Jack Couch faithful into a frenzy Thursday night.
His grounder in the bottom of the ninth allowed the winning run to come in, as the Panthers beat their Highway 7 rivals from Guelph 6-5.
Zane Skansi - who pinch ran for Malik Williams - slid home safely after Royals catcher Matthew Ward bobbled the throw home from Garrett Takamatsu, who came in to play as a fifth infielder.
It capped off a stunning bottom of the ninth. Kitchener, down by a run, loaded the bases with nobody out.
Jackson Cooke walked to score Petey Kiefer before Ibarra's heroics.
Ben Hewitt, who came into the ballgame with the bases loaded in the seventh, picked up his first win of the season. Hewitt struck out three in this one, while going 2.1 innings.
The game went back-and-forth.
Trent Lawson hit a three-run home run in the first off former major leaguer Edgar Garcia.
But Garcia settled in after that, striking out 10 in six innings of work. All the while, Guelph scored four to take the lead.
Not for long. Mateo Zeppieri took Brandon Deans' first offering of the night over the fence to tie the game up again.
“It was a huge team win for us,” said Shanif Hirani, who is now 2-0 as the team's field manager.
“We had contributions up and down the lineup and our pitchers gave us a chance. We gave up our lead early, but they never gave in. We kept stacking good at-bats until we could break it open in the end.”
Kitchener improves to 12-24 on the season, while Guelph drops to 21-16.
The Panthers now go into a home-and-home with the Barrie Baycats.
Saturday, they will head north before returning for a Sunday matinee at Jack Couch Park.
First pitch flies at 2:05 p.m.
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