Martin leads Quebec over St. Thomas

   Quebec survives late St. Thomas rally to remain undefeated at Nationals

   powered by two home runs from Jonathan Martin in an 8-7 win

Saturday, August 18, 2018

By Rob J. Ross 

ST. THOMAS (5 p.m.) -  Jonathan Martin has put Quebec in the driver's seat.

Martin hit a pair of homers, including a three run bomb, to lead Quebec over the St. Thomas Tomcats, 8-7, in a showdown of their pool's 2-0 teams, at the 21U Men's National baseball championship, at Emslie Field.

Quebec, the reigning four time National champions, moves to 3-0 and has the inside lane to finish first in their pool, earning a bye to the semifinals. (Quebec later beat Saskatchewan, 6-2, in their final pool game, to finish at 4-0.)

The Tomcats twice trailed by four runs, including down 8-4 heading into the seventh inning. The host team rallied with three runs and had the tying run 90 feet away. Troy Lofgren's two out double pulled the Tomcats to within a run, following RBI singles by Jacob Mansfield and Austin Oulds.

Mansfield looked poised to tie the game, but Tomcats manager Bob Lofgren held him at third base.

"I wished I could have sent Manny on Troy's double in the gap. But when I looked the throw was right to the cut and he (Mansfield) was just at third. A decent throw would have had him," the Tomcats skip said. "We weren't going to give up. We knew we were in it. We were at the right part of the order in the last inning. The guys battled. We got some hits and had guys on base."

The game ended with a pair of controversial strikes called on Tomcats' Jeremy Noonan.

Martin, who represented Quebec in the home run derby, finished three-for-four, with four RBI and three runs scored.

"Jonathan has been this all season. He just keeps on rolling," Quebec head coach Marc Andre Ronda said. "When they made 5-4, we bounced back with a big inning and that's what gave us the win. It makes the game exciting and the emotion was high at the end."

Ronda felt this was his team's best hitting game, producing eight singles, to go with Martin's home runs.

"We talk as a team to get better every game. We surely had some better at bats. Yesterday we weren't really sharp in the batter's box."

 Quebec led 5-0, after five innings, thanks to Martin's work and a Michel Dagenais RBI single.

Troy Lofgren shot the Tomcats back into the game, smacking a grand slam, in the top half of the sixth inning.

Showing their own resiliency, Quebec responded with three runs, all with two out, in their next at bat, on consecutive RBI singles, from Dagenais, Mathieu Charlebois and Luca Portolese.

 Quebec starter Zach Gignac was an out away from a complete game, holding an 8-5 lead. Quebec then decided to go the bullpen, a call that almost backfired. Their first reliever struggled with control. Then the Tomcats jumped all over Quebec's second relief pitcher.

"Zack pitched well," Ronda said. "Their lead-off (Daniel Lichty) was three for three against him. We thought bringing in some lefty arms, to put their line-up off balance a bit."

Gignac allowed five runs, all earned, scattering seven hits over six and two-thirds innings, striking out three batters and walking two.

Tomcats' starter Jackson Jones gave up eight runs, seven earned, in five and two-thirds innings, striking out seven batters and walking four.

"He (Jackson) didn't have his best stuff, but he did what we needed him to do today and that was give us a chance and we had a chance," manager Lofgren said. "They had a solid left-handed line-up (with seven batters). "They're (Quebec) a well coached team. They have speed. They can bunt and they got some power. They have a good line-up."

 Troy Lofgren finished with a grand slam, a double and five RBI, while Daniel Lichty batted four for four, including a double and scored twice.

 The Tomcats (2-1) take on Nova Scotia (1-2), in their final pool game tonight.