You wouldn’t necessarily call it “the best of times” or “the worst of times”, but London Majors’ Manager, Roop Chanderdat definitely looks back on the 2017 IBL regular season as, “A tale of two halves” for his ball club.
After capturing the IBL pennant in 2016, London zoomed out of the gate and ran neck and neck with the Barrie Baycats early on. Barrie would go on to capture this year’s pennant.
The two teams combined for a 28-0 start. Some of that had mother nature to thank. The Majors and Baycats had three meetings rained out that would have seen one or both streaks end a whole lot earlier.
When they finally met on June 27, the game was decided by a single run, that came across in the bottom of the ninth. Barrie won 1-0.
London went unfazed through their next four games, winning them all and stretching their record to 17-1 as they hit halfway on their 36-game schedule.
Their only loss was a game either team could have won.
Then came part two of the season.
It began with a loss in Kitchener and then two losses to the Baycats on July 9. That was followed by another loss to Kitchener, two more losses to Barrie and then a morale-demolishing, 20-0 defeat in yet another game against the Panthers.
The Majors would go eight games on the field without winning, however, none of the losses came as a complete shock to Chanderdat.
“It’s simple. Personnel change. We lost our number one starter who signed a pro contract. We lost out catcher for two to three weeks, we lost our centre fielder and our second baseman. We went through a lot of injuries and personnel change. It took awhile for guys to step up and adjust to their new roles… Are we the same team we were at the start of the year? No, we’re a different team. But we’ve found a way to compete and battle and hopefully we can carry that into the start of the playoffs.”
Forfeit victories over the Guelph Royals helped. They ceased operations during the year. Then London put together a four game winning streak, split games with Toronto and Kitchener and ended their schedule with a squeaker of a loss that saw the Majors fall one run short in Brantford, closing with a record of 25-11.
Looking at the season in its entirety has Chanderdat feeling optimistic.
“We’re going to have to do it a different way now… We’re not dependent on one or two guys, we’ll need the whole team to step up. I think we have a good shot, still and we’re looking forward to seeing what we can do against Burlington.”
The first round series against the Herd opens Wednesday night at 7:05 at Labatt Park.
Schedule
Game 1: Wednesday, August 2nd at London 7:05pm
***Luis Sanchez will be London’s Game 1 starter. He will come in well rested, having last pitched on July 19. Sanchez won his first seven appearances and ended the year with a record of 7-3.
Game 2: Thursday, August 3rd at Burlington; 7:15 PM
Game 3: Friday, August 4th at London 7:35pm
Game 4: Sunday, August 6th at Burlington; 5:30 PM
Game 5: Tuesday, August 8th at London 7:05pm
Game 6: Thursday, August 10 at Burlington; 7:15 PM
Game 7: Friday, August, 11 at London 7:35pm
Season Series
The Majors went a perfect 5-0 against the Herd in 2017.
London outscored Burlington 47-16.
Chanderdat warns that those numbers might be a bit deceiving.
The Outlook
The Majors have a great veteran core that includes Chris McQueen, Byron Reichstein, Cleveland Brownlee and others. They have been in big games and have won big games. That is always a huge asset in the post-season.
The biggest question marks for London will come beyond the first round. The Majors owned a 1-4 regular season record against Kitchener and went 0-5 against Barrie.
Barring an unlikely upset, London’s quest to win their first IBL title since 1975 will have to go through both of those cities.
A look back
Here are Manager Roop Chanderdat’s expectations back on opening night:
The other first round matchups
Hamilton vs Kitchener
The Baycats went 33-3 and nabbed most of the IBL headlines, but the Panthers are very good. They play exceptionally well at home and should have no trouble with the 9-27 Herd.
Toronto vs Brantford
Three of their five games against each other this season were decided by one run. They split the other two. This is as close to a coin flip as you can find.
The Barrie Baycats earned an automatic bye when the Guelph Royals folded and will enter the playoffs in round two.
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