Heading into a road game Thursday night against the Barrie Baycats, there was no team hotter in the Intercounty Baseball League of Ontario, Canada, than the Hamilton Cardinals.
Two nights before, the Cardinals defeated Guelph 4-1 to notch their seventh consecutive victory, as former Bayfield High School standout Clay Miller was named the IBL’s Pitcher of the Week the previous day for his work during the July 15-21 time span.
Part of the reason had to have been that the left-hander managed to blank hitter of the week Andrew Mercier and the Welland Jackfish for eight innings in a 9-0 Cards conquest. Miller struck out eight, walked four and allowed just three hits while lowering his earned-run average to 3.33 and improving to 3-1 overall, at the time in nine appearances (eight starts) with 54 strikeouts against 44 hits and 21 walks in 51 1/3 innings.
Miller also supported the Cards’ cause against the ’Fish quite well with a monstrous homer, upping his own batting totals this summer to three hits in six at-bats with a double, one run scored and three RBIs.
Mercier earned his award by going 6-for-12 in three games, scoring twice and knocking in six.
This is the final week of regular-season play in the IBL.
