Giants one win away from fifth MJBL title in a row

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This article was published 30/07/2022 (1456 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE Elmwood Giants are knocking on the door of Manitoba Junior Baseball League history.

The league powerhouse is one win away from a historic fifth-straight MJBL championship. Elmwood knocked off the St. James A’s 4-1 in Game 2 of the best-of-five series in a sprint to the finish Friday night at Koskie Field.

“They knew before this game we had two more to go to make something happen that’s never happened before with five in a row,” said Giants manager Ed Kulyk. “Now we’re down to one and they know that, they’re really hungry.”

Giants veteran Owen Harms had the biggest hit of the night, smashing a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth, tacking on a pair of runs and giving his side a 4-0 lead. Harms couldn’t have picked a better time to smash his first home run of the season.

“I’ve been close all year and it feels good to finally be able to get one,” said Harms. “The guys in front of me, they’re the ones who got everything started… as we go we just build off that energy.”

Friday’s contest was a sprint through four innings thanks to solid defense and even better pitching from both sides. St. James starter Easton Grieve was the losing pitcher on the night, but Harms gave him credit for being one of the toughest guys in the league to solve all year long.

A standout moment came when Grieve and the A’s were able to weather an early storm when Elmwood loaded the bases in the bottom of the first inning but failed to score.

“He’s tough to hit all the time, we finally broke through,” said Harms. “This lineup, it’s tough to beat so hats off to him.”

It was another dominant performance on the mound for Elmwood following Tyler Smith’s 12 strikeout performance Thursday evening. Giants starter Hayden Mahy pitched five full innings before being pulled after giving up one run with two outs in the top of the sixth.

“We’ve got workhorses,” said Kulyk. “This year with the pitch count it was a little tough to monitor where we had to pull Hayden out today, we would’ve liked to have gone complete.”

There’s little time to celebrate the victory as the potential championship-clinching Game 3 goes tonight at 7 p.m. at Koskie Field. Kulyk said it’s up to the players to get the job done tonight.

Game 4 of the series, if necessary, will be played Sunday evening at Optimist Park.

“They’re really hungry, they’re confident, they got a little swagger, but they’re ready to go,” said Kulyk.

Gavin.Axelrod@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: Gavin77axe