The season is over the Charlottetown Gaudet’s Auto Body Islanders.
The last-place Saint John Alpines rallied with three runs in the seventh inning to beat the third-place Islanders 4-2 Monday at Memorial Field and win their New Brunswick Senior Baseball League opening-round series.
The Alpines swept the series in three straight games.
The Saint John club went up 1-0 with two out in the top of the third inning when a walk and a misplayed weak fly ball resulted in a run.
In their half of the inning, the Islanders went ahead 2-1 when Sean Corcoran and Andrew Macdonald hit singles and were driven home by Andrew MacNevin and Travis Gaudet.
Pitcher Jordan Stevenson then controlled the Alpine hitters until the seventh.
A lead-off single by the Alpines’ Ron Barton was followed by a hard-hit potential double-play ball which was not handled and resulted in runners on first and second.
A sacrifice bunt effort by Shawn Crawford was fielded but Stevenson slipped and the bases were loaded.
Brook Saunders hit a chopper to third, but the throw home, which seemed to beat the runner, counted as a run when the Islander catcher was deemed off the base.
With the score tied 2-2, Scott May hit a clean single to centre to score Yves Parent and a perfectly-executed squeeze bunt by Josh Ferguson scored Crawford to give the Alpines the 4-2 lead.
Barton and May each had two hits for the Alpines.
For the Islanders, Macdonald, Gaudet, Kyle Dougan and MacNevin all had two hits, while Jeremy MacKinnon, Corcoran, Jason Doyle and Nick Cameron each had a single.
The Islanders outhit the visitors 11-7.
Stevenson finished with five strikeouts and no earned runs, while the Alpines’ Peter Shaw survived a shaky start in the first two innings, but the Islanders left the runners on the bases.
The Alpines will now play the first-place Fredericton Royals in semifinal action.
The Moncton Mets and the Hub City Brewers are still deciding who will play the second-place Chatham Ironmen in the other semifinal.
Alpines 10 Islanders 0
Saturday at Saint John, N.B., the Alpines jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back in the second game of the series.
Ryan Arsenault held the Islanders to four hits with 10 strikeouts to pick up the win.
Matt Dixon suffered the loss.
Andrew MacNevin and Kyle Dougan each had two hits and Morgan MacLean drew three walks for the Charlottetown squad.
Peter Shaw hit 3-for-3 for the Alpines.
