A hot, uncomfortable night turned into just that on Monday evening as the Milton Red Sox were bested by Etobicoke 12-2 at Connorvale Park.

The Sox got on the board first, on an early miscue that led to an unearned run to put Milton up 1-0 in the top of the 3rd inning. The Rangers would add an unearned score of their own in their half of the third to knot the game at 1. From there, it was all Etobicoke. The reigning COBA Champs would instill their discipline and will, and ran away with the game to halt the Sox win streak at 3.

Starter Dylan Clark started strong mixing his pitches well against the vaunted Etobicoke lineup. Some early defensive miscues put the Sox behind 3-1 before the wings fell off in the 5th inning. The Rangers plate discipline on full display - proceeded to punch base hit after base hit to chase Clark at 6-1. Reliever Adrian Cookson came on with no outs in the 5th and the bases loaded - a tough situation for a rookie hurler. Nonetheless, Cookson made the best of his assignment, however, allowing Clark's last baserunner to score and own two of his own to put Etobicoke up 9-1 after 5 innings of play. A late MIlton run would extend the game to the 7th inning, but the Rangers would eventually plate the plus 10 run off reliever Nick Edwards and secure the win. 

Some bright spots for Milton were rookie first baseman Medrik Dube going 2 for 3 at the plate against some skilled pitching and newcomer, Christian D'Cruz getting his first hit with the Sox - a late double into the gap. Defensively, Milton committed 5 errors to accelarate the early night of baseball.

With the loss, the Sox drop to 7-5 at the halfway point of the season, besting their 12 game start (5-6-1) of 2024. Milton will host the Waterloo Tigers on Wednesday evening at Glenn Turner Field to kickoff the season's second half. Game time 7:30 pm.