The Maple Ridge Jerks of Hammond sit atop the Lower Mainland Baseball Association’s 18-plus age division with a record of 8-1.
They took their division leading record to Burnaby on Friday night looking to defeat the winless Brewers, but the hosts gave the Jerks all they could handle.
The Jerks were uncharacteristically quiet offensively in the first four innings, only managing two hits one single each from Cliff Maclean and Terry Carlisle.
Hammond loaded the bases in the third, but couldn’t push a run across home plate.
The Jerks needed a rally to overcome the 2-0 deficit, and as they have all year, came back in the fifth inning and tied the game 2-2 after Burnaby had some crucial throwing errors.
A costly Jerks error in the botttom of the fifth, put the Jerks behind again, but they had an offensive explosion in the sixth. Burnaby fielders continued to boot the ball, and the Jerks kept putting it in play. When the dust cleared, Hammond had put up six more runs.
They were led by two hits from Maclean, three from Carlisle and two from Jeff Schmidt.
Schmidt (2-0, 1.88 ERA) needed to provide the Jerks with a quality outing, since they were short on pitching that night. He ended up tossing his longest outing of the season. He struggled in the first inning, allowing two runs, but was lights out the rest of his start, striking out five Burnaby hitters over five quality innings.
Rob Gauthier (2-1, 2.33 ERA) came on in relief for the final four frames, and had to battle during his appearance to lock down his second win of the campaign. He had four strikeouts, and only allowed two earned runs.
They are back home to battle a tough cross-division foe for only the second time this season, the Delta Dodgers (6-2-1), on Sunday, June 21st at Larry Walker field. The first pitch goes at noon.
