Jackfish swim into second round with sweep over Panthers

By ROD MAWHOOD • Photo by Logan Taylor

Robert Mullen's dramatic first pitch, walk-off, home run in the bottom of the tenth inning lifted the Welland Jackfish to a 6-5 victory, and three-game sweep of the Kitchener Panthers in the opening round of the Intercounty Baseball League playoffs.

Full marks to the Panthers, who wouldn't go down without a fight.

With Welland leading 4-3 in the ninth inning, Kitchener would score two runs to take a 5-4 lead into the bottom of the inning.

With two out, Gio Morello walked, followed by a Jonah Weisner single. Matteo Porcellato would then single home Morello to send the game to the tenth inning tied 5-5.

The Panthers would fail to score in the top of the inning. 

Cue the Robert Mullen heroics. 

"It was definitely nice to end it. Great character win for our guys," said Jackfish Manager Brian Essery. 

"Two outs in the ninth inning and our leaders, top of the lineup, get it done with Weisner, Morello and Porcellato. Those guys have been doing that all season. 

To have Mullen leading off the tenth, we couldn't have written a better script than that. He's a big-time player and those type of guys rise to those occasions.

Credit to Kitchener, they gave us a real fight in all three games. Their starter Elliot was excellent."

Welland now awaits their IBL semi-final opponent. 

"We'll take the days off and prepare, it will be nice to give our pitchers a few days rest and be ready," Essery added. 

Stay tuned to wellandjackfish.com for all your playoff and ticketing information.