Brian Backland Photography 

By Ryan Eakin

MIDHURST, ON - Seven to go.

The Barrie Baycats defeated the Hamilton Cardinals 11-1 on Thursday evening to take a 1-0 series lead in their best-of-seven semi-final series.

Baycats starter Frank Garces recorded the victory, tossing eight innings while giving up zero earned runs on six hits and one base on balls, while striking out ten batters along the way.

Baycats third basemen Branfy Infante led the way at the plate, going three-for-four with six runs batted in.

He hit two three-run home runs.

Cardinals starter Josh Freeman took the loss, tossing five innings while giving up eight earned runs on nine hits and four base on balls, while striking out one batter along the way.

HAMILTON - 1-6-1

BARRIE - 11-11-2

Game two of this semi-final series against takes place tomorrow evening in Hamilton. 

First pitch is scheduled for 7:30 pm.

POST GAME QUOTES...

"It is super nice," said Infante on his two home runs. I always go out there and try my best so it was nice to get two good pitches to hit."

"They came to play," Infante said of the Cardinals. "You could see in the first couple of innings, they were loud. They beat London, who is a good team, so we know what they are capable of."

"He did what aces do," Baycats general and field manager Angus Roy said of Graces' performance tonight. "He went out there and kept putting out zeros until the offense was able to get going. You feel really good when he takes the mound. You always feel like you are going to win and don't have to score a lot, so he lets the offense and defense relax."

"They did a really good job trying to put the ball in play," Roy said of the Cardinals. "Sometimes when you have big time arms on the mound, guys like to start them out by taking some pitches, but they, especially early, did a great job of putting the ball in play."

"We got eleven guys who should be playing every game," said Roy after the bottom three batters in the Baycats lineup recorded nine RBI. "It's a really good thing to have. You look at our bottom three guys, those are guys that would be hitting in the middle of the lineups on a lot of teams, but they aren't here, so they just go out and give us good at-bats."