Our fickle weather queen - Mother Nature - held on just long enough for the Sox and Brants to get their Opening Day twin-spin completed. Good, bad, and ugly.. the silver lining was a good day for baseball and two complete games now in the books.
Game One:
Returning veteran, Chris Smorenburg drove in five runs on three hits to leads the Sox past Burlington 14-6 in Saturday's opener. Smorenburg's RBI single in the first inning, followed by a 2-run double in the 2nd, and capped by another 2-run single in the 3rd gave Milton all the offence it would need to cruise to the big win.
Milton jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after their half of the 1st, only to see the Brants strike right back with 2 of their own in the top of the 2nd inning. That's when the game turned. Possibly, the 2025 version of the Sox would not have responded, but the '26 crew did. Milton flipped the game immediately after being knotted in their half of the 2nd, scoring 5 times on 5 hits to take a 7-2 lead. The biggest blow came from returning shortstop, Christian D'Cruz who drove in two with a clean single with two out.
The Sox would add on in the home half of the 3rd inning when Liam Buckley's single scored 1, D'Cruz walked, and the aforementioned 2-run single from Smorenburg to extend the Milton lead to 9-2.
Veteran hurler, Nate Hamel stepped on the hill for Milton and gave his teammates 2 innings, surrendering 2 hits, 2 runs (1 ER), while walking one. Adrian Cookson came on in the 3rd inning, collecting 2 innings of relief and garnering the early-season win. Lefty Nick Edwards, and hard-throwing right hander, Josh Maxwell finished the game, keeping Burlington at bay and not permititng any sort of rally.
Milton tallied 13 hits in the game. Along with Smorenburg's day at the plate, super-vet Chris Bloom had two hits, as did catcher Jake SIracusa; while Buckley, and rookie Tyler Henshaw each matched with 2 hits apiece. The Sox would also have 6 base on balls for the game, led by centrefielder Ben Singh's 2. The Milton defence would turn one double play.
A great start for the home squad and high hopes for a sweep of the day!
Game Two:
The second game began much like the first, with the Sox getting on the board in the bottom of the first inning, courtesy of 2nd baseman, Matt Fusco's RBI single plating Christian D'Cruz who had earlier been hit with a pitch and stole 2nd base. That is where the fun stopped for Milton on the day.
Burlington would score three times in the 2nd off Sox starter Dylan Clark, and plate another 5 (1 ER) in the 3rd off reliever Kyle Clark, to build an 8-1 lead. The pitching corps took it on the chin in the late game as Rhys Tapper, Eric Beharri, and Tyler Henshaw could not stop the seemingly rejuvenated Brants offence on route to a 21-3 beating.
Milton's offence was led by Josh Maxwell, Matt Fusco, and newcomer Kyle Leger, who drilled his first extra-base hit on the season with a booming double to the left-centrefield gap. Maxwell, Fusco, and 3rd baseman Jeremy Kim drove in the Milton runs.
The 2026 COBA Season will continue this week for the Milton Red Sox as they will host the Waterloo Tigers on Wednesday evening, 7:30 pm at Glenn Turner Field; and will travel across the 401 to Etobicoke to face the 2025 Canadian National Representatives on Friday, May 15, 7:30 pm at Connorvale Park.
