By: Ken Beckett

BURLINGTON – Threatening with the bases loaded, one run scored already, and just one out, the skies opened up in the fourth inning and forced umpires to postpone the rest of Thursday night’s home game between the Burlington Herd and the London Majors.

The Herd jumped out to an early 4-0 lead courtesy of the long ball. It was Mattingly Romanin and Vaughn Bryan who left the park early, each launching solo home runs in the bottom of the first inning. Both homers were the second of the season for each respective player.

Burlington third baseman Nolan Pettipiece got in on the action with his own home run the next inning, blasting a two-run shot to score catcher Jon Thibodeau and extend the Herd lead to 4-0. The homer was Pettipiece’s second of the campaign and the RBI’s his sixth and seventh of 2018 to put him in a tie for second place on the team with Reese O’Farrell. Justin Gideon leads the team with 17 RBI’s on the year.

That lead would last until the top of the fourth inning when all nine Majors batters came to the plate and the team put up six runs. Spurring the offensive outburst that inning was London centerfielder Byron Reichstein who had a three-run home run to give the Majors the lead for the first time in the game.

Answering back in the bottom of the fourth were the Herd as Grant Okawa had an RBI double to score Tyler Patzalek and cut London’s lead to 6-5. Okawa would advance to third base that inning, while Pettipiece earned a walk and would move to second and Gideon reached first on a fielder’s choice to load up the bases with just one out before the umpiring crew were forced to call the game.

Making his first start for the Herd on the mound was left-handed pitcher Trent Lunsford. Over 3.2 innings pitched, the Overland Park, Kansas native gave up three hits and two earned runs while registering six strikeouts.

Stay tuned for a make-up date between the Herd and the Majors, which will be announced shortly. Burlington are back in action on Friday night as they head to Brantford to take on the Red Sox.

The Herd are back in action at home on Saturday as they host the Hamilton Cardinals. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05PM and tickets are available at IBLHerd.com.

If you can’t make it to the game, “The Voice of The Herd” Ken Beckett has the call for all Herd home games on Mixlr.com/IBLHerd. For live-game broadcasts, interviews, player profiles, game previews, and recaps, follow Ken on Twitter at @KenBeckett.

The Burlington Herd are a member of Ontario's most elite baseball league, the Intercounty Baseball League. The 100-year old summer league is one of the oldest baseball leagues in the world, with the league established in 1919, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. For more information, visit www.iblherd.com or follow the Herd on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @IBLHerd.