The Fairfield Mariners and the New Canaan Cannons stepped onto the field Sunday morning at Mead Park as the only unbeaten teams after two weeks of play in the Fairfield County Men's Senior Baseball League. The teams lived up to those expectations with a nail-biter and Fairfield pulling out a 3-2 victory in the ninth inning.
Fairfield grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the first on a single and stolen base by Imtiaz Vohra. Rob Ayala's RBI single gave the Mariners the lead. New Canaan answered with two runs on an RBI groundout and Mario Lopez's RBI double.
Eric Dube doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Bob Mingutz to knot it up at 2-2. Both teams had no problems getting runners on base in the early innings, but had trouble getting runs across. Both starting pitchers exited early and it became a battle of relievers.
Pitcher Mike Guilfoyle came in for Fairfield and was dominating in striking out the first six batters he faced. In the eighth, New Canaan had runners on second and third with one out in the eighth, but came up empty after a pop out and another strikeout.
Fairfield scored the winning run in the top of the ninth. Shaun Malay doubled to center field and took third on a sacrifice bunt. With one out and Malay at third, Mingutz hit a slow grounder up the first base line that was snagged by Cannons' pitcher Scott Carew. As Malay danced off third base, Carew's throw to first was low and trickled into foul territory, allowing Malay to score. Guilfoyle slammed the door in with a perfect ninth. He finished with nine strikeouts.
The defending league champion Mariners (2-0) meet the Bridgeport Dodgers on June 5 at 9 a.m.
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