The Toronto Maple Leafs never do it the easy way against the lowly Hamilton Thunderbirds, but at least on Wednesday night they managed to beat them.
Jordan Castaldo drove in the winning run with a single to key a two-run eighth inning rally, lifting the Leafs to a hard-fought 9-8 win over the Thunderbirds in Intercounty Baseball League play at Dominico Filed at Christie Pits.
Toronto (20-10) is tied for first place in the IBL and the Thunderbirds (7-20) are in last. But Hamilton has already beaten the Leafs twice this season and almost made it three times Wednesday.
"Don't know what it is about this team but they always give us a tough time," Leaf owner Jack Dominico said. "We're lucky we're done with them this year."
The Leafs travel to Barrie Thursday night and are in Mississauga Saturday. Next home game is Sunday at 2 p.m. against the Brantford Red Sox, who the Leafs are tied with for first place.
Castaldo had three hits and scored twice for Leafs with three RBI, including a two-run homer in the first. Raul Borjas had two hits and an RBI and Rob Gillis swatted a three-run homer for the Leafs in the first inning. Starter Jake Gallo got rocked for all eight runs in just 2 2/3 innings, but reliever Brian Corcoran was outstanding. He threw 5 1/3 shutout innings, allowing just five hits with four strikeouts and one walk to pick up the win. Cody Powell earned the save with a scoreless ninth. He allowed two hits and was helped by a great running catch by right fielder Kyle Degrace in the top of the ninth. Dan Jagdeo, Graeme Carey and Chris Leendertse all had three hits for the Thunderbirds. Leendertse drove in two runs and Jordan Windisch added two hits and one RBI to the Hamilton attack. Mike Fortuna, the fourth Hamilton pitcher, took the loss. He went two innings, allowing two runs on four hits.