LONDON, Ont. – Road sweet road.
That’s what the Western Mustangs must be thinking after winning their fifth-straight road game, this time a 7-6 decision over the Guelph Gryphons at Hastings Stadium Tuesday night.
When the ‘Stangs last played at home, they dropped both ends of a doubleheader against the last-place Gryphons, who received a pair of strong pitching performances in the sweep. Since then, Western has done a lot of travelling by bus, making trips to St. Catharines, Kitchener, Brantford and Guelph. But it’s been worth it, as the Mustangs compiled a 5-1 record during that span to improve their record to 9-4 on the year.
Their latest stop was perhaps the most satisfying. Not only did they get their fifth win in a row, they also got a little bit of redemption after dropping those two earlier contests against the Gryphons.
“We had a little unfinished business to take care of,” said Western manager Mike Lumley. And that’s exactly what they did.
Andrew Bergman took the ball for the Mustangs on short rest, having worked five innings in a 13-2 blowout against Waterloo on Saturday. The right-hander turned in a steady performance, allowing four runs on six hits over 6.0 innings of work. He walked three, struck out four and left with a 6-4 lead.
After Guelph scored a pair of runs in the seventh to close the gap to 7-6, rookie third baseman Paul Lytwynec shifted to the mound and worked a perfect 2.1 innings, striking out five in the process to pick up the save.
Despite the fact that the Gryphons made things close, Lumley was confident until the end.
“Everything was kind of steady today,” he said. “We knew we were in control the whole time.”
Offensively, the Mustangs had a well-rounded performance. Robert Wakefield went 2-for-4 with a walk and three runs scored in the win. Ian Campbell went 1-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, while Andrew Salmon and Andrew Thomson also picked up RBIs in the contest.
At 9-4, Western currently sits atop the OUA standings. They will return home and play their first game at Labatt Park in 12 days on Thursday night against the McMaster Marauders, who sport a 7-3 record. If you take into account the fact that the Mustangs played their first three ‘home games’ in St. Thomas due to a schedule conflict at Labatt Park, the team has only truly played two home games this year – the two losses against the Gryphons. In other words, the team has put up a 9-2 record away from their home park.
Still, Lumley doesn’t read into that too much. According to the manager, his team would still prefer to play at home. And he’d certainly like to have home-field advantage come playoff time.
The Mustangs will look to carry over their road success into Labatt Park starting Thursday night. The first pitch is set for 7:05 pm and will be broadcast on Rogers TV, Cable 13.
