MONCTON — Serge Vautour went 4-for-4 with a pair RBIs and belted his team-leading third home-run of the season to lead the Moncton Mets to 14-6 rout of the Charlottetown Islanders.
The roughly 300 fans on hand at Kiwanis Park watched the Mets open the game with seven consecutive hits, plating seven runs before the Islanders could weather the storm in New Brunswick Senior Baseball League play last night.
“We talked about getting the jump on them early because last game they got the jump on us,” said Moncton coach Glenn Burt after an 8-5 home loss to Charlottetown on Monday.
“It was nice to see seven runs in the first inning for sure.”
Charlottetown starter Jacob Beck was shelled for 10 runs on 13 hits in four innings of work in the loss.
Rinzler started things off in the first with a double to centre, only to score off a Craig Betts single. Designated hitter drove in Betts and Serge Vautour, who doubled for his first hit. A single by Chris D’Amours cashed in Arbeau, while Mark Fournier scored off a wild pitch and Luc Vautour snuck home in a fielder’s choice.
Before everyone was settled in, the game was over.
“These guys came to hit tonight. Everybody seemed to get a piece of the ball tonight,” said Burt.
Serge Vautour kept the momentum going in the second frame, crushing Beck’s offering to right-centre to go up 8-0.
“The previous at-bat I hit one pretty hard and he got behind the count again and I was expecting a fastball and he just kind of laid one on the plate,” Vautour said.
“I’ve been kind of struggling lately, so it’s nice to get that confidence back.”
Later Luc Vautour singled in another run, Arbeau drove in his third RBI of the match in the third. He went 3-for-4 with a walk.
Luc Vautour plated another run in the fifth as well. It was a big night for call-ups Vautour and Justin Cormier. Vautour went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, while Cormier made a number key defensive plays at shortstop for the Mets.
Mario Cormier went five strong for the win, allowing two runs on four hits and fanning two in his first start of the year.
Cormier’s only blemish came in the second as Andrew MacDonald doubled home a pair of runs to make it 8-2.
Luc Daigle came in for relief in the sixth, allowing four runs off a flurry of hits in the final inning, but that’s as close as the Islanders would get. The Mets would cruise to the 14-6 final.
Sean Corcoran led the way for Charlottetown, going 2-for-2 with two RBIs, a walk and a stolen base.
Pierre Boucher pitched in with three singles for Moncton and two RBIs, while Betts went 2-four-4 with two runs scored, a RBI and a walk.
The Mets improve to 13-12, while Charlottetown falls to 8-16.
The Islanders head to Fredericton on Saturday for a doubleheader, beginning at 4 p.m.
