LONDON, Ont. – It was a night of streaks at Labatt Park on Wednesday, as the Mustangs set two different marks with a 7-0 win over the Waterloo Warriors.

Western’s win was the seventh straight victory for the ball club since they posted a record of 4-4 to start the year. Meanwhile, the win also helped the ‘Stangs clinch a playoff spot for the sixth year in a row.

Both streaks were extended thanks in large part to a solid pitching performance from Andrew Bergman, who improved his record to 4-1 on the year. The right-hander chose a great time to have his best outing of 2009, as he allowed just five hits in eight scoreless innings of work. He walked three and struck out five in helping Western maintain its hold on first place in the OUA standings.

“I felt alright out there tonight,” Bergman said. “My off speed stuff wasn’t really working too much early on, so I had to rely on the fastball a lot. But luckily when you have a defense like our team has, you get away with doing that. They played really well tonight.”

Specifically, Bergman was the recipient of a pair of nice running catches by left fielder Ian Campbell, as well as a clutch double play started by third baseman Paul Lytwynec, which halted a Waterloo rally in the seventh and ended the inning.

But Bergman helped his own cause, of course, by limiting the Warriors to only a handful of hard-hit balls in the contest, which marked the right-hander’s longest of the year. Bergman has been stretched out further in each start since coming back from a summer season where he threw very little. 

“This is the most innings I’ve gone in a long time, so it just felt great out there,” Bergman said. “[Kyle] Harris had a great game behind the dish, keeping everyone off-balance, going inside and outside.

“This week is a big week for our pitchers -- just mentally preparing for the playoffs. We’re just going to try and keep on doing what we’ve been doing and relying on that defense of ours. And the sticks are really coming around too, so that really takes a lot of pressure off us also.”

The sticks were working once again on Wednesday night. In fact, it looked as if the Mustangs were going to blow the game open right off the bat.

Following an Andrew Salmon walk to open the bottom of the first, Campbell and Harris each singled off Waterloo starter Joel Smith to load the bases with nobody out. But the Mustangs managed to score just once on a sacrifice fly by Rob Wakefield. Bruce Craine was thrown out at home on a double steal attempt, and Graeme Price grounded out to second to end the inning.

Western plated single runs again in the fifth (Salmon RBI single) and seventh (Craine RBI double), before finally blowing it open in the eighth. With runners on first and third and nobody out, Andrew Thomson picked up his team-leading 22nd hit of the season, this time an RBI infield single to bring home Robert Charter and extend the lead to 4-0. Salmon walked with the bases loaded to pick up an RBI, and Thomson scored on a wild pitch. Harris then made it 7-0 with a sacrifice fly to right.

In all, the Mustangs managed 10 hits on the night. Thomson went 3-for-4 to raise his season average to .407, while Campbell and Craine each recorded multi-hit games for Western. Salmon, meanwhile, continued his hot play at the top of the order, reaching base three times, scoring once and picking up a pair of RBIs.

Overall, Craine, the de facto team captain, is pleased with where the team is heading.

“I think we’re definitely peaking at the right time right now,” said the fifth-year veteran. “That’s seven in a row for us. Last year we kind of peaked at the start and rolled into the playoffs on kind of a downslide. But this year I think we’ve peaked at the right time. We got our bats going, and our defense is solid.”

At the same time, the second baseman stressed the importance of Western’s three remaining regular season contests.

“We’ve got two big ones against Brock Saturday, and we have to really focus on winning those games and getting home field throughout the playoffs,” Craine said.

Bergman echoed those remarks.

“I think we’re ready to go into the playoffs and we just want to beat Brock – our rivals – this weekend and go into the playoffs strong.”

The Mustangs will welcome Brock to Labatt Park this Saturday, Oct. 3 for Western’s homecoming weekend. The teams will play a doubleheader starting at 1:00 pm.