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.

The battle for first place in the Intercounty Baseball League will likely go right down to the wire, but for the moment the Toronto Maple Leafs sit on top.

Jordan Castaldo had three hits and drove in three runs as the Leafs knocked off the Barrie Baycats 8-5 Tuesday night in Barrie, moving the Leafs into a first place tie with the Brantford Red Sox.

Castaldo keyed a three-run rally in the eighth with a two-run double as Toronto (19-10) ended the night tied with Brantford (17-8) for top spot, a half game ahead of the now third place Baycats (18-10).

It was just one of those days for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday afternoon at Dominico Field at Christie Pits.

Just about everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the Leafs as the Guelph Royals snapped a five-game losing streak by drubbing Toronto 14-0 in Intercounty Baseball League play.

About the only good news for the Leafs came on the out-of-town scoreboard, as the Barrie Baycats and Brantford Red Sox also both lost, leaving the Leafs (18-10) still just a half-game behind first Barrie, tied with Brantford.