The Trois-Rivières Eagles could not hope to do better in New England, as they swept the Knockouts with wins of 4-0, 6-1 and 7-4. In the standings, the Eagles were unable to gain ground with Ottawa’s six consecutive victories, meaning they still occupy 4th place in the East Division, behind Quebec, New York and Ottawa.
In the final game of the series, Matthew Rusch’s men, the Eagles’ offense did enough for Osman Gutierrez to earn his fourth win of the season despite allowing 4 runs in 6 innings of work. He has Brendon Dadson to thank for a solo home run and Jacob Carroll for a walk-off single, who gave him a 5-4 lead in the top of the 5th inning. Gutierrez (in the 6th), Harry Rutkowski and Kosei Naito (2 innings) then gave the locals nothing, while Trois-Rivières added two runs in the 9th inning, en route to a 7-4 victory.
In the first duel, Braeden Allemann was finally able to enjoy his first victory of the season (against 5 losses) by giving nothing to the Knockouts, in 6 innings of work. The Eagles right-hander only gave up 2 hits to his opponents, in addition to totaling 9 strikeouts. On offense, Dalton Combs opened the scoring in the top of the 3rd inning on a defensive error, just before Brendon Dadson doubled his team’s lead with a productive single. Then in the top of the 5th inning, Luis Corbelo paid a long ball for two runs, bringing the score to 4-0.
On Saturday, it was Jesen Therrien’s turn to handcuff the Knockouts by giving up no earned runs in 7 innings of work. He also struck out 6 times. The Eagles were up 3-1 when Dalton Combs hit a big two-run single in the top of the 7th inning, with all the bases loaded. They had 12 hits, including three by Trois-Rivières’ Raphaël Gladu. For his part, Combs drove in three of his team’s six runs.
The Eagles have a big week of baseball ahead. They are still on the road with four games against New York, including two this Tuesday, before returning home this weekend to face the Quebec Capitales.
