It’s easy to see why there is just one half game separating the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Brantford Red Sox in the Intercounty Baseball League standings.

There certainly wasn’t much to choose between the bitter IBL rivals on Sunday afternoon at Dominico Field at Christie Pits either, as the Leafs scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to score a wacky 7-6 win over the Red Sox.

Brantford (19-9) heads into the final week of the regular season just a half-game better than Toronto (21-12) after the loss. But the Red Sox have the daunting task of having to play eight games by next Monday, while the Leafs have just three games left on their schedule, including two of them in Brantford.

Those two match-ups will likely be needed to settle who claims the IBL pennant this year after the Leafs blew a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth, only to score twice in the bottom of the ninth to win, with the winning run scoring on an error.

“That was a wild one for sure, but now we have the advantage of having gotten in most of our games already,” Leaf owner Jack Dominico said. “We can set up the pitching for next weekend and we’ll see what happens to them (Brantford) this coming week.”

Toronto is in Brantford Friday, plays Ottawa next Sunday in their annual Toronto Sun/Mantella Cap Day at Christie Pits, and then goes to Brantford again on Monday to finish the season.

Sunday’s game was a back-and-forth affair that included a one hour, five minute weather delay with the score tied 4-4 after seven innings. When play resumed the Leafs took the lead on an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning by Damon Topolie, only to lose it on solo homers by Josh McCurdy and Chris Emanuele in the top of the ninth, Emanuele’s second solo homer of the day.

That set the stage for the ninth, when the Leafs managed to score two runs off Brantford closer Stefan Strecker to win the game. Tyler Fata had an RBI single and Brian Ivan’s bases-loaded grounder to third baseman Tyler Patzalek was bobbled, allowing Raul Borjas to scamper home with the winning run.

Mark Sikorski, the fourth Leaf pitcher, got the final two outs in the ninth to get the win after Cody Powell allowed the two homers that put the Sox in front earlier in the inning.

Kern Watts had three hits and scored a pair of runs for the Leafs, while Dan Gibbons had two hits, including a solo homer. Ivan and Borjas also both had two hits for Toronto.

Strecker, also the Red Sox’s fourth pitcher of the day, wound up allowing two runs – one earned – on three hits in 1/3 inning to take the loss.

McCurdy, Emanuele, Bryon Bell and Al Stephens all had two hits for the Red Sox.