March 29, 1959
Eastern League: Tiebreaker Game Required to Settle Wild Card
The United Leagues’ regular season has been extended for another day, as the Cobourg Redlegs and Braeland City Monarchs finished in a dead heat for second place in the East and will require a tiebreaker game to determine the Wild Card winner and who will move on to face the first-place Wellington Athletics for the Eastern League Pennant. It’s the seventh time in ULB history that a tiebreaker game has been required to settle the playoff picture and the first in 2 years. It’s also the second time that these two teams have met in a tiebreaker game to determine the Wild Card winner. Exactly five years ago – March 29, 1954 – the Monarchs trounced the Cobourg Red Stockings, 5-0 and moved on to face the Stratford Barons in the post-season that year.
It just so happened that the Redlegs and Monarchs squared off against each other in the final three games of season with the Redlegs entering the series one game up on Braeland City. The series was played in Cobourg, but the Monarchs took the first game, 2-1, to pull even with two games remaining. The animosity between the two clubs quickly surfaced in the 4th inning after Cobourg’s LHP Axel MacKay threw at and hit 1B Dean Witherden on a 0-1 pitch. This was immediately after MacKay had surrendered a lead-off home run by LF Hayden Goodale, giving the Monarchs a 2-0 lead and one that would ultimately hold up. Witherden charged the mound and ignited a benches-clearing brawl. Both Witherden and MacKay were ejected.
Cobourg won the second game, 5-0, as the Redlegs’ pitchers limited the Monarchs to 3 hits. The game was highlighted by a 4th inning Grand Slam home run by back-up catcher, 27-year old Salesi Lapaele (.292/.346/.500, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 2 BB, 129 OPS+, 0.3 WAR), an 8th-round pick from 1954-55.
But Braeland City rebounded in the final game, beating Cobourg’s ace LHP Bill Budd, 4-1, to pull back into a tie and force the tie-breaker game. The Monarchs plated three runs in the 5th inning, including a lead-off homer by CF Bernard Burkitt.
The two teams will not have to travel far, as Radcliffe Field in Cobourg will host the tiebreaker game. The Redlegs edged the Braeland City Monarchs in their regular season match-up, 8-7.
No. 2 starter, 24-year old LHP
Lachlan Lloyd (13-7, 2.70 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 142 ERA+), takes the hill for Cobourg, while the Monarchs respond with their No. 2 hurler, 27-year old RHP
Dara Eaddy (17-9, 3.74 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 106 ERA+). The Redlegs will be without one of their key offensive cogs in 31-year old LF Juan Gonzáles (.242/.317/.457, 29 HR, 82 RBI, 54 BB, 8 SB, 109 OPS+, 2.5 WAR). Gonzáles, who started the season slow but batted .346/.397/.648, 13 HR, 33 RBI, 14 BB in the final two months of the season, strained a hamstring muscle in a game against the Brunswick Legends back on March 24th. He will be out for another 6 weeks.