Expos Split The 4 Game Weekend; Disappointing Sunday Drops VanMinor Just Below Provincial Qualification Line Heading Into May Long Weekend Tournament

The weekend was a tale of two opponents, a second-last place team and a second place team. The Expos short-staffed for both games finished 2-2 this weekend and now sit one place below the provincial qualification line heading into Richmond's Queen Victoria Invitational which gets underway Thursday.

Game 1 - VictoriaRed 2 EXPOS 3

Vancouver Minor had the tough task of having none of their pitchers exceed 45 pitches in both games in order for all hurlers to be fresh for Sunday against the Cowichan Valley Mustangs. The Expos did a very effective and efficient job at that, Domingo got the start in this one and pitched well managing to get through 3 1/3 innings in 44 pitches, he had an impressive .714 first pitch strike % and picked up 5 strikeouts along the way. Domingo escaped out of jams in the 1st and 2nd, both innings leaving two runners in scoring position to end the inning. Domingo was opposed by Takacs, the hard throwing 1st year pitcher from Victoria; Takacs was also very effective against Vancouver in this contest as he pounded the zone (.724 first pitch strike %), and induced weak groundballs all game. The combination of Domingo, Horino (2.67 IP, 5 Ks, 0 H) and Takacs had the score deadlocked at 0-0 until the bottom half of the 4th inning. In the 4th, Pinoni (called up from AA for the double header due to a short-staffed roster) led off the inning with a single to RF, and Domingo re-entered to run for him. Yamamoto laid down a sac bunt to advance the now re-entered Domingo to 2nd, who then advanced to 3rd on a wild pitch. Fukuda was next up and was walked, advancing to 2nd on the stolen base. The Expos were now threatening with runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, when Victoria Red pulled the "hidden ball trick" catching Domingo napping and changing the situation to now runner at 2nd and 2 out. Baybay. the next batter up hit a clutch single to RF scoring Fukuda, breaking the deadlocked score. The bottom of the 6th saw Vancouver Minor score a run on a Yamamoto safety squeeze scoring Hutchings from 3rd. With a 2-0 score heading to the 7th and Inomata now in for the save, a single, error, fielder's choice + error and single had Victoria with runners at 1st and 3rd, 2 out and down only a single run on the scoreboard. On the next pitch, Vancouver's first and third play caught the runner at 3rd in a rundown; however, a botched rundown led to the tying run scoring and go-ahead run advancing to 3rd. However, the score would be kept a tie as Inomata got Sheridan to fly out to LF. The bottom of the 7th saw Baybay lead off the inning with a single (Woo came in to pinch run for Baybay), Horino laid down a sac bunt, Woo advanced to 3rd on the wild pitch, Antiporda could not come up with contact and struckout but it was Inomata who put the game to rest, with 2 out and a full count on him, Inomata singled to center to bring in the game-winning run.

Game 2 - EXPOS 13 VictoriaRed 2

Game 2 saw Fukuda making his first start since March and the kid pitched well, allowing 0 runs in 2 1/3 innings pitched. Although Fukuda was great in the start, the story of this game wasn't the pitching but rather Vancouver's offense which exploded for 13 runs on 15 hits. Antiporda, Inomata, Suarez, Hutchings and Fukuda all had a multi-hit game; out of 11 Vancouver players with an official at-bat, 10 of them had at least 1 base knock. Extra base hits credited to Yamamoto (2B), Antiporda (3B) and Suarez (3B). The Expos hit .643 (9/14) with runners in scoring position and did not waste any time finishing their opponent off in game 2. Yamamoto and Suarez both got their first innings of 2016 on the mound, both pitchers were efficient letting their defense do the work. This was the offense the Expos were looking for heading into Sunday's contest.

Game 1 - EXPOS 0 CowichanValley 4

The Expos were up before 5am to hop on the 6:30 ferry, prepping for a long day the Expos knew they had a tough challenge in front of them. With Cowichan Valley not playing Saturday, Vancouver knew they were going to see the Mustangs' best. As expected, Pringle got the start for Cowichan and the Expos countered with Hutchings, who was coming off his best start of the year against Nanaimo exactly a week ago. Both starters were dialed in, Hutchings kept the Mustang hitters off balance all game while Pringle fired straight gas past the Expos hitters all game. Cowichan would strike first off a couple infield singles and a bases loaded walk to go up 2-0. That was all the scoring they needed as the Vancouver batters could not catch up to Pringle's fastball for 7 innings, having only 1 runner touch 2nd base (leadoff batter Antiporda). Both teams combined provided only one solid hit into the outfield all game, that being a Cowichan double into the left-center gap that plated 2 insurance runs. The Expos tried everything to get past Pringle but the Mustangs collectively played solid defense en route to 4-0 victory.

Game 2 - CowichanValley 10 EXPOS 0

The Expos who came to the island with only 10 players (2 injured and 1 away) had nothing left in the tank for game 2 as the focus just was not there. After exerting so much focus on defense in game 1 and playing two games the day before it was evident that the fresh Cowichan Valley squad had the clear advantage. Howse got the start and pitched well but defense failed him at crucial times as 3 two-out errors lead to 3 runs for Cowichan. Hill got the start for Cowichan and was in fact better than Pringle, had a lively fastball and kept hitters off-balance with his secondary pitches, the Expos had 5 infield singles in this contest; in addition, a ugly 5th inning put the game to bed. Vancouver failed to have a hit out of the infield all day and only 1 runner touched 3rd base...ouch. The Expos hope to have 11 healthy players present at Richmond's Queen Victoria Invitational, tournament play gets underway Thursday as the Expos take on the Chilliwack Cougars.