Baseball: New Jersey Jackals end first half of season with disappointing sweep
by Andrew Garda
garda@montclairlocal.news
The New Jersey Jackals enterered Sunday’s game with a 36-25 record looking to avoid a sweep from the 29-31 Ottawa Champions. Their meeting was the final game before the CanAm League All Star which was held in Ottawa on Tuesday, July 24th.
Steve Borkowski (5-5 3.74 ERA) was on the mound for the Champions while Lee Sosa got the nod for the Jackals (6-1 5.69 ERA).
New Jersey got off to a quick start when Brian Burgamy laced a single up the middle to give the Jackals to a 1-0 lead to bring home Johnny Bladel.
Johnny Bladel drove in Yariel Vargas on a sacrifice fly to center in the bottom of the fifth to double their lead to 2-0.
Tyson Gillies was tired of seeing 0 runs on the scoreboard and decided to follow up Saturday night’s performance with a two run home run to right center field to tie the ballgame at 2 in the top ofthe sixth. That was his sixth home run on the season.
The Champions responded though and took the lead on a Sebastian Boucher RBI single to right in the seventh. Ottawa was not done there as Stevie Brown got involved with an RBI single that doubles the Champions lead, up 4-2.
After that, Lee Sosa’s day was done after going six and a third innings giving up four runs and eleven hits.
The Jackals weren’t dead yet, and Gregor cut the deficit to one on a sacrifice fly to left in the seventh.
Steve Borkowski came in and pitched seven innings allowing three runs and five hits.
Later, Daniel Grauer smacked a three run homer, his seventh of the year, to give the Champions insurance runs in the ninth as they took a 7-3 lead. They piled on more runs as Boucher tallied two more runs on a single to right off of Zach Arneson, who came into relief in the DeLuca in the ninth.
Garrett Cortright came in to close the game as the Champions won 9-3 to complete the sweep of the Jackals. Following their last trip to Yogi Berra Stadium Ottowa is now 7-0 this season at the Jackals’ home. The Jackals headed into the All-Star break with a 36-26 record, while the Champions finished up the first half of the season with a 30-31 record.
Jackals resumed the second half of their season Wednesday, July 26 at 11:05 AM against the Sussex County Miners.