North Dufferin Baseball League senior championship underway

Written By Brian Lockhart

It may have been a short season, but the intensity in the North Dufferin Baseball League's senior championship has not waned at all.

The Bolton Brewers are up against the New Lowell Knights in the quest to claim the Strother Cup and the 2021 senior title.

There was no championship awarded last year when the season was cancelled due to the pandemic.

The Brewers have taken a two-game lead in the series after the teams played the opening games over the weekend.

Fall ball can be a little dicey when it comes to weather, but both days had perfect sunny skies making for a good afternoon for the games.

The final series kicked off in Bolton on Saturday, September 18, with a 1:00
p.m. start.

The Brewers and Knights finished off the regular season with identical 8 – 2 records and a very close ‘runs for' and ‘runs against' record. Fans knew this was going to be a hard fought series and they weren't disappointed with the quality of play on the field.

New Lowell scored in the first inning of game one for a 1 – 0 lead.

From there, it was a real pitcher's duel with a quality performance from both sides.

Batters were getting on base, but neither team could do much to advance and score.

Several innings went scoreless as both teams tried to advance runners with
little success.

The Brewers tied the game in the sixth. In Bolton's half of the seventh, with two out, Drew Volkey walked, stole second, and then scored when an error was made on a throw to first base ending the game with a 2-1 win for the Brewers.

Trent Barwick started on the mound for Bolton. He pitched seven innings, allowed one run on 12 hits, walked one, hit one batter, and struck out six.

Steve Baldry pitched 6 2/3 innings for the Knights, allowed two runs on three hits, walked four and struck out seven.

The teams were back at it the following day, when they met at the diamond in New Lowell for game two of the series.

Again the Knights were held to a single run for the game.

The Brewers scored four to take the win and move ahead 2- 0 in the series.

The teams will get a week off before meeting again this coming weekend for the third game in the series.

Game three will take place in Bolton on Saturday, September 25.

The first pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.

If the Brewers are successful, the season will be over. If the Knights prevail the series will move to game four.

Game four is scheduled to take place in Bolton on Sunday, September 26, with a 2:00 p.m. start.