July 7, 2019

By Kavan Young

Ottawa Champions

OTTAWA – The Ottawa Champions blew another lead to lose their second straight game against the Trois-Rivières Aigles, 7-3 to give the Aigles the series win.

Phillippe Aumont gave the Champions another quality start, striking out five over seven innings, but was denied his sixth win of the season because of poor fielding. Austin Glorius also allowed four runs in the ninth, which didn’t help Ottawa’s cause.

Aumont talked about mental toughness when it comes to his pitching staff but said that ultimately the defence behind them needs to pull their weight.

“That was a really good ball game and they have to find a way to feed off that,” said Aumont. “I think we have a really solid team when everybody is in together, when they’re on their toes and they want to get the ball.”

He said that when the pitching staff doesn’t have confidence in their fielders, they sometimes try to overcompensate which causes them to throw more pitches.

The Champions head into the All-Star break with a 22-25 record. Manager Sébastien Boucher (Gatineau, Que.) said he expects more from a team with so much experience.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” said Boucher. “With the team that we have, the guys that we have, the experience that we have, we play average baseball. We shouldn’t be losing one-run ball games. We shouldn’t have lost this game today and we shouldn’t have lost yesterday.”

He continued by saying that stupid mistakes are making it seem like the Champions are rookies.

Tucker Nathans hit a single up the middle off of Glorius that allowed Anthony Hermelyn and Raphael Gladu to score, putting Trois-Rivières up 5-3. Taylor Brennan hit a triple at the next at bat that scored two more runs to make it 7-3.

Raphael Gladu gave the Aigles the lead in the seventh with an RBI single that scored Juan Kelly and Michael Suchy but the Champions tied it the next inning on a wild pitch from Tyler Ferguson.

Eduard Pinto opened the scoring for the Champions in the fourth with a single that squeaked past Aigles second-baseman David Glaude into the outfield, scoring Vinny Guglietti and Jiandido Tromp. Trois-Rivières cut the lead in half two innings later though, when Taylor Brennan drove in Glaude with a base hit up the middle.

UP NEXT:

The Champions and the rest of the Can-Am league teams have the next three days off for the All-Star break. Ottawa heads to Sussex County on Thursday when league play resumes to face the first-place Miners in a four-game series.