Saunders sinks royals with grand slam. Police keep eye on heckler

The Chatham O'Donaghues Ironmen played game 2 of their series against the Fredericton Royals tonight at Ironmen Field. After 4 and half scoreless innings, the Ironmen bats started to get to Derek Wilson. Marc-Andre Pitre led off the inning with a single. Orry Cook attempted to bunt Pitre to second, but a poor bunt allowed Wilson to get Pitre at second.

The next two batters reached with singles, and Chris Keating hit a ball off the end of his bat that scored Cook from third, and left the bases loaded. At some point during the inning, Wilson's arm became noticeably sore, and the Royals hurried to get a reliever ready. But before one could get warmed up, Jon Saunders stroked a grand slam over left center, and the Ironmen led 5 - 0.

Ironmen pitcher JF Neveu was having a good night until the top of the sixth. The previous inning he got out of a 2nd and 3rd nobody out jam, to keep the Royals at zero. But in the sixth the first three Royals batters reached base and and with nobody Matt Stairs came to the plate. The Ironmen brought in Jamie Walls who got roughed up in game 1 by the Royals. Walls got Stairs to pop up on a 3-1 pitch, but eventually surrendered two runs in the evening, both attributed to Neveu.

The Ironmen added two more in the 6th to make the score 7-2.

The distraction of the night came courtesy of a Royals fan. Sitting down the third base line behind the Royals dugout, the fan was razzing the umpires, Ironmen coach Greg Morris, and especially Ironmen third baseman Chris Keating. Keating was named the league's MVP, and the fan was testing Keating to see how think his skin was. Keating reacted, and one point most of the Ironmen were standing near the Royal's bench getting a close look at the heckler. Some of Keatings fans came over during the game and had something to say to the heckler, too, before police arrived to ensure everyone's good behavior.

The series continues tomorrow in Fredericton, and will be back in Chatham on Monday.