TIMMINS - The Champoux Homes-Wacky Wings Orioles plated four runs in the bottom half of the fourth for a 9-5 come-from-behind win against the Lessard-Stephens Red Sox in Game 1 of the best-of-five Timmins Men's Baseball League semi-final series between the two teams.
Ace pitcher Marc-André Lavoie wasn't his usual dominant self for the Orioles — though he didn't get much help from his defence — as the Red Sox jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the top of the second inning on Wednesday.
Sox third-baseman Sheldon Lacroix drew a walk off Lavoie to open the inning and first-baseman Greg Therrien followed that up with a single. After Stephane Cloutier's sacrifice fly advanced both runners, they came around to score on an error charged to Orioles shortstop Trevor Niemi. Randy Rice, who got all the way to third on the play, came home on Ryan Dubeau's RBI single.
Dubeau scored to make it 4-1 before the end of the inning, taking advantage of another Orioles error, this time to second-baseman Dave Tambeau.
The Orioles had taken a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when leadoff batter Eric Paquette doubled and eventually scored on Lavoie's sacrifice fly to centre field.
After the Sox's big second inning, the Orioles got one back in the third. Dani Durepos singled, stole second and scored on Lavoie's RBI single to make it 4-2.
The Red Sox added one more run to their lead in the top half of the fourth, but any celebration would be short-lived.
Orioles centre-fielder Eric Boulard opened the bottom of the inning with a walk off Red Sox starter Brent Cleverdon. After a base hit by Tambeau, James Daschuk forced Therrien into an error at first base which allowed two runs to score. Scott Durepos eventually plated Daschuk with an RBI single, while Dani Durepos drove Niemi home with a base hit of his own to put the Orioles up 6-4.
The Orioles took advantage of more bad defensive miscues by the Sox to add two more runs in the fifth inning and one more in the sixth to complete the scoring.