After a mixed-bag tournament weekend in London where the Milton Red Sox went 0-1-2 and could have easily been 3-0, 0-3, 0-0-3, or any other scrambled mess that exists; the local senior baseball squad got back to COBA Major League play on Wednesday night in fine fashion.
Scoring early has not been an issue for the Red Sox in 2026, and this evening was no different. Getting on the board in the first inning via Liam Butchereit's RBI single, Daniel Leonard's RBI fielder's choice, and Aaron Nash's fence-clearing two-run blast put the home side up 4-0 early.
The Sox would add two more runs in the 2nd after Chris Smorenburg singled down the rightfield line, scoring Chris Bloom, and newly-signed infielder Brett Graham to extend the Milton lead to 6-0. Graham would get hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the 3rd, and Butchereit lofted a sacrifice fly, plating two more. Milton 8, Oakville 1.
Two unearned runs for Milton in the 4th stretched the lead to 10-1, and Butchereit continued his hot night with a two-RBI double scoring Ben Singh and Graham to cap the inning push the lead to 12-1.
The Red Sox would tally an additional 3 runs in the 5th courtesy of two unearned runs, and catcher Medrik Dube's first of his 5 RBI on the night, jacking it to 15-1 for Milton. Dube would put a lid on his game with a two-run double to the left-centrefield fence in the 6th, followed by an RBI single from Matt Fusco to end the barrage for Milton.
Oakville would scrap for 5 runs in the 7th, but it was too little, too late for the visitors.
Final:
Milton 18
Oakville 6
Rookie Tyler Henshaw got the nod for Milton on this night. The young RHP gave his teammates 4 innings, allowing 4 hits, 1 run (0 ER), while striking out 3, and walking two. Kyle Clark pitched two innings of no-hit, no-walk relief and struck out 2 along the way in earning the win. Rhys Tapper, and Sam Savard mopped up for the Red Sox., with the latter striking out the final Oakville batter with the bases loaded.
Offensively, the Sox piled up 13 hits in the game. Dube led Milton with a 2-for-4 night along with his aforementioned 5 RBI from the eight spot in the lineup. Butchereit had another great evening at the plate as the 3rd baseman was 2-for 3 with 4 RBI. Christian D'Cruz, and Matt Fusco also had two hits apiece in the win. Leadoff hitter Chris Bloom set the table on the basepaths, walking 3 times and scoring twice. Bloom was on-base all 4 plate appearances. In his first game in a Milton Red Sox' uniform, Brett Graham swiped two bases, and provided some sparkling defence from the shortstop position. Milton would steal 5 bases for the game.
The win gets the Sox back over the .500 mark at 9-8 on the season. Milton will attempt to match their season-high of two games over the break-even-line when they travel to Brampton on Thursday night to face the Royals. Game time 7:30 pm at Dave Dash Field.
