Sultans lose second straight heartbreaker

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This article was published 24/07/2017 (2460 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Carillon Sultans dropped a narrow 9-8 decision to the Elmwood Giants Monday night in Steinbach as the defending champion Giants now lead the the best of seven Manitoba Junior Baseball League semi-finals 2-0.

It was the second straight night the Sultans suffered a heartbreaking loss. Sunday night at Elmwood, the Giants scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull out a 2-1 victory.

Although there were many more runs scored Monday night in Steinbach, it was the same result as the Giants rallied late to escape with the victory. Tied 3-3 after two innings, the Sultans pushed four runs across in the bottom of the fourth to take a commanding 7-3 lead.

But that advantage was short-lived as the Giants responded with five runs in the top of the fifth to go up 8-7. The Sultans again tied it in the bottom of the fifth, before the Giantas scored what proved to be the winning run in the top of the sixth.

With darkness rapidly settling in, the Sultans threatened to tie it in the bottom of the seventh as Noah Vogt belted a no out double. But Vogt was later thrown out attempting to steal third and the Sultans went down to the costly defeat.

Nick Grenier led the Sultans offensively with three hits and three runs scored while Jared Esau also had three hits on the night for the Sultans.

Game three in the series will be played tonight (Tuesday) at 7:00 p.m. at Charleswood Park in Winnipeg. Should the Sultans prevail, game four will be played Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at A.D. Penner Park in Steinbach.

Meanwhile, the other semi-final series is deadlocked at one game apiece. Last night at Morden, the Pembina Valley Orioles evened the series with a 12-5 victory over the favoured and pennant-winning St. James A’s.