August 27, 2019

By Cavan Young

Ottawa Champions

OTTAWA – With a 6-1 loss to the Rockland Boulders on Tuesday, the Ottawa Champions were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

The Champions needed Rockland to lose each of their last nine games in order to have a chance at the post-season but were unable to get any traction in the game to give starter Danny Garcia any support.

Garcia tossed six innings, striking out eight and walking two, giving up no earned runs on six hits.

It was not the kind of effort that Sébastien Boucher was looking for as his first year as the Champions’ manager winds down.

“Inconsistency is rampant on this team,” said Boucher. “That’s pretty much what they’ve been doing most of the year. They have a good sequence, then a bad sequence, then a good sequence, then a bad sequence. They might show up tomorrow and get 15 hits because it doesn’t matter.”

Ottawa had just three hits through the first seven innings while Rockland had four runs in the third inning alone.

“It’s not a good way to end,” Boucher continued. “It’s not a good way to represent when we’re at home. We don’t really show up for our fans and it’s really disappointing.”

While the Champions didn’t do much to help their cause, they fell victim to a couple of questionable calls from the officials. On one play, it appeared the throw got to second in time but the umpire claimed that Ottawa’s second baseman Nick DeTringo took his foot off the bag before making the catch.

On another play, Rockland’s runner was quite clearly beaten by the throw but once again was called safe.

Ottawa managed to eke out a run in the bottom of the seventh when DeTringo smacked a double that drove in Trey Martin.

Rockland opened the scoring, putting up four runs in the third inning after a number of errors and misplays by the Champions.

The two teams face each other again tomorrow as the Champions look to avoid their worst season in franchise history. Zac Westcott takes the mound for Ottawa at 7:05 p.m. at RCGT Park.