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Senior Islanders looking to continue building momentum

Moncton visits Memorial Field for an NBSBL doubleheader on July 24

JASON SIMMONDS SPORTS REPORTER Jason.simmonds @theguardian.pe.ca @JpsportsJason

After a successful 2021 season debut at home, the Charlottetown Gaudet’s Autobody Islanders are looking to build on that momentum on July 24.

The Islanders will host the Moncton Fisher Cats in a New Brunswick Senior Baseball League doubleheader at Memorial Field. The first game will begin at 2 p.m.

“Hopefully, this weekend, the offence continues to pick up where we left off last weekend,” said Islanders catcher Logan Gallant. “We started getting the bats rolling. We started scoring a few runs and let the pitching and defence do the work behind them.”

The Islanders, who had a late start to the regular season due to COVID-19, are 2-2 (won-lost). After losing their first two games on the road in Moncton – 8-1 and 2-1 in extra innings on July 11 – the Islanders bounced back to sweep the Saint John Alpines 4-1 and 3-1 at Memorial Field on July 17.

Gallant and Islanders general manager and head coach Myles Grady are looking forward to renewing acquaintances with the Fisher Cats (6-6).

Our attitude is a little different this weekend after those two good games last weekend against Saint John,” said Grady.

Reflecting on the first two games against Moncton, Gallant feels the Islanders are right there with the Hub City team. Gallant said the 8-1 score is not a true reflection of the game.

“They only outhit us 7-5,” said Gallant. “We had a couple of chances early on and couldn’t score. They had a few walks and a few timely hits that helped.

“In the 2-1 game, we had our chances to put a few more on the board after scoring in the top half of the first inning. That is the way baseball is – somedays the bounces go your way, and somedays they don’t. Hopefully, the bounces are on our side when we go at them again.”

Grady said ace right-hander Jordan Stevenson and Tanner MacLean are the probable starters for the Islanders. Grady, who added J.P. Stevenson and Jake Beck are available for mound duty against Moncton, hopes the team’s strong pitching continues.

“You couldn’t ask for anything more (from the pitchers against Saint John),” said Grady. “We did have some errors that I was disappointed in, but the field was kind of hard, and there were some bad bounces. You can’t really help that.”

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2021-07-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281728387544776

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