By Ken Beckett, Photo by Craig Aikin

TORONTO – The Burlington Herd picked up their first road win at Christie Pits this season, doubling up the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 for their second win in a row.

The Herd got the win in Toronto just 24 hours after thumping the first-place Kitchener Panthers 11-4 at home to improve their record to 9-17. The loss, meanwhile, is the Leafs’ fourth in a row and drops their record to 13-13.

Burlington jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on some mistakes made by the Maple Leafs. Herd catcher Reese O’Farrell got the inning started by reaching base on an error by Leafs shortstop Aaron Hornostaj. Then after advancing to second on an infield putout at first, he was advanced to third base on a balk by Toronto starting pitcher Zach Sloan. O’Farrell managed to score on the next play, an infield single by Herd second baseman Grant Okawa.

The balk would add to the Herd’s lead in the top of the fourth inning, when with O’Farrell at third base and Okawa at the plate once again, Leafs reliever Daniel Szpik committed a balk which scored O’Farrell.

Toronto would answer back the next two innings to tie up the ball game as Mike Reeves started off the bottom of the fourth with a single and would later score on a Damon Topolie groundout.

The game got tied up in the bottom of the fifth when Justin Marra would plate the Leafs’ second run of the game off Herd starter Rich Corrente.

The score would remain tied until the top of the seventh inning when Grant Okawa hit a solo home run off reliever Adam Marra for his first long ball of the season to put Burlington up by one run. Then after Justin Gideon hit a double, he would steal third base and later score on a sacrifice fly by Mattingly Romanin to give the Herd the 4-2 lead.

Earning the victory for the Herd was reliever Jeremy Gwinn for his first win of the season. Gwinn pitched 2.1 innings of work in relief of Corrente, giving up no hits, no earned runs, and no walks to go along with two strikeouts. 

Credited with the save for Burlington was Kyle Symington who pitched a clean ninth inning to pick up his first save of the 2018 season.

Taking the loss for Toronto was Adam Marra to drop his record to 0-1 on the year. Over one inning pitched, Marra gave up three hits and two earned runs.