Pitcher Chris Jelley shuts down Ravens offense late in debut.
It was a big night for the U of O Gee-Gees men’s baseball club as they faced off against the Carleton Ravens at RCGT Field on Wednesday. Last time these teams collided the Gee-Gees were on the wrong side of a 14-3 blowout.
“Carleton is a strong team, (they were) successful in our former league and now (in) this league,” said head coach Andrew Cockburn.”We’re trying to build and grow as a team and we’ll use Carleton as a comparison. Our main focus is on ourselves right now rather than (on) the rivalry and the competition.”
The Gee-Gees had a strong start with five hits in the first inning and a stolen base by Ryan Gunther to take an early 3-0 lead.
However, the Ravens answered back with a grand slam in the bottom of the second inning to tie up the game.
In the fourth, the Gees exploded with four runs including a double by Gunther and clutch at-bats from Jonathan Al-Araaj and Ethan Kaminski which both drove in runs. After four innings, the Gee-Gees were up 8-6.
Chris Jelley entered the game in the sixth inning and made quick work of the Carleton batters with three strikeouts and no runs allowed to close out the ball game.
Brett Platts added some insurance in the seventh inning with a bases-loaded triple that sealed the victory for the Gee-Gees.
The standout performers for the Gee-Gees were Kaminski (3-5, 4 RBIs), Al-Araaj (2-4, 1 RBI, 2 R, 1 walk (BB)), and Gunther (3 R, 1 BB).
Jelley spoke to the Fulcrum after the game.
“I haven’t pitched in a while, and knowing that it was my debut pitching for the U of O (I knew) I better make an impression,” said Jelley. “I did my best to throw some strikes and let my defence make plays like they did and get the win for the team.”
The Gee-Gees will be back in action this weekend as they take on Guelph and McMaster in southern Ontario. The Gees will be back at RCGT Stadium next Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. when they take on Carleton in round 3 of the O-Train series.
