The mission is almost accomplished for the round-robin portion of the Canadian senior men’s fast pitch championship for the P.E.I. Gahan House Bud Light Fawcetts.
The Fawcetts downed Quebec 6-2 Wednesday afternoon, then overcame some shaky defence in the nightcap to edge the Brookfield Elks of Nova Scotia 3-2 in front of another solid crowd of more than 1,000 fans at the Central Field complex in Charlottetown.
The hosts have won four in a row and are closing in on a top-four finish in the 10-team field and a coveted double life when the playoffs open Friday night.
The Fawcetts record sits at 6-2 entering today’s last day of the round-robin. The Owen Sound Selects of Ontario can still overtake the hosts for a spot in the top four after defeating Quebec 9-2 in a late game Wednesday night. Owen Sound (4-3) would need to win its last two games today and hope the Islanders lose to Three Cheers Pub of Newfoundland and Labrador (6-1) in the Fawcetts’ round-robin finale at 6:30 p.m. Owen Sound controls the head-to-head tiebreaker with the hosts, thanks to a 3-2 victory Monday.
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The Fawcetts opened scoring on Kevin Schellenberg’s RBI-single in the second inning and plated two more on a Jeff Ellsworth RBI-single and Chris Craig’s RBI-groundout in the third.
Fawcetts starter Frank Cox, who hadn’t pitched since giving up five runs in 1.2 innings in a 10-3 loss to the Kitchener Rivershark Twins of Ontario on Sunday, was cruising along until the third when he started favouring his right arm after a pitch to Brookfield’s Jeremy Locke. Cox, who allowed one hit and struck out five of the nine batters he saw, finished the at-bat but was lifted in favour of Trevor Ethier immediately following.
“It’s day-to-day with Frank right now with a forearm issue,” said Fawcetts coach Doug Hines. “We’re going to get him for some physio on Thursday and see if we can get it worked out.”
Brookfield got on the board on a two-out rally in the fifth and was looking for more in the sixth after three Fawcetts errors cut the deficit to 3-2 with one out and Elks runners at second and third. Ethier induced a popup on a squeeze bunt attempt, made the catch, then alertly threw to third to double off what would’ve been the tying run.
“It’s a long week when you’re playing nine games and there’s going to be ups and downs,” said Fawcetts second baseman Steve Larter, who singled in three trips to the plate. “It wasn’t all that pretty tonight, but the key thing when you have your downs is just to stay positive and work through it as a team.”
Ethier gave up three hits and struck out three over the final 4.2 innings. Scott Wagar took the loss, allowing seven hits over 3.1 innings. Randy Frame kept the Elks alive with 3.2 innings of solid relief, surrendering just one hit and fanning four.
With Cox and Ellsworth (groin) battling through injuries, and with most of the Fawcetts starters having been through eight games in four days of sweltering late-summer heat, Hines would love to have the top-four finish sewn up before his club takes the field tonight.
Owen Sound meets Kitchener, Ont. (7-0) at 11 a.m. and Fredericton (2-5) at 2 p.m.
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Ellsworth had a two-run homer, and Schellenberg and Craig added solo shots as the Island side roughed up Quebec starter Gregg Garrity for 11 hits. Rob Geisbrecht added a pair of singles and two RBI.
Mitch Hardy earned his second win of the tournament, scattering four hits while striking out nine. Hardy lowered his earned-run average for the tournament to 1.68, with 22 strikeouts in 16.2 innings of work.
Miguel Mottard’s triple was Quebec’s lone extra-base hit.
