By: Braeden Jones
QUEBEC CITY, CANADA – The Joliet Slammers (39-52) may have had a long trip to Canada to play the Quebec Capitales (63-27), but they did not show any signs of fatigue as they emerged with four home runs to win 10-4 on Tuesday.
The Capitales would strike first in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Torin Montgomery and Eddie Hacopian would hit back-to-back singles to start things off. Yuta Hamada then came up to the plate and delivered a 3-run homer to clear the bases and start Quebec in the lead at 3-0.
The Slammers would immediately respond in the top of the 3rd inning. Blake Berry would get on base with a walk to set up a 2-run home run from Peyton Carr to start off Joliet’s scoring. Olivier Basabe was inspired by that deep shot, so he hit a solo homer of his own. That would tie up this ballgame at 3-3.
The Slammers showed how bad they wanted the lead in this game when the top of the 5th rolled around. A Berry double and a hit by pitch on Carr would put two baserunners on to start this half-inning. Jackson Beaman would take advantage of that when he smoked a 3-run homer to match Quebec’s big shot earlier in the game. A hit by pitch on Basabe and a single for Tyler Cerny would keep the action going for Joliet. Ian Battipaglia would score Basabe on the first non-homer with an RBI single, and Patrick Ward would score Cerny and Battipaglia off a 2-RBI single. The Slammers had tripled the score and now led 9-3.
The Capitales would grab a run back in the bottom of the 7th inning. Two straight walks on Kyle Crowl and Chavez Young would set up an RBI sacrifice ground out from Ruben Castro to score Crowl. That was all Quebec could muster, so the score only slightly shifted to 9-4.
The Slammers would nab that run right back in the top of the 9th. Cerny would provide what was the fifth home run of the game in the form of a solo shot to get the score to 10-4. This would also be the final score, so Joliet showed up strong in Canada and took the first game of the series.
The Slammers now sit at a three-game winning streak and will look to win the series against the Capitales in two games on Wednesday. Having their seven-game winning streak broken, Quebec will look for revenge against Joliet on Wednesday at home.
