Jackfish sweeps Panthers

WELLAND -- Robert Mullen homered on the first pitch he saw from Danny Garcia in the bottom of the 10th, and Welland finished a first-round sweep of Kitchener with a 6-5 win on Saturday night. 

Jonah Weisner went 3-for-5 with an RBI atop the Jackfish lineup. His last hit was a single in the ninth after the first two Welland batters struck out. Weisner scored two batters later on Matteo Porcellato's single to send the game to extra innings. Brendan Luther had a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. 

Deivy Mendez (1-0) earned the win after giving up an earned run on three hits in two innings. Welland starting pitcher Ben Abram fanned nine over seven innings. He gave up three runs on eight hits. 

Yosvani Penalver drove in two for the Panthers. Petey Kiefer went 2-for-5 with a two-out RBI to give Kitchener the lead in the ninth. Runta Osawa had three hits and scored the go-ahead run on Kiefer's ninth-inning single. 

Garcia (0-1) took the loss after throwing one pitch. Evan Elliott started on the mound and yielded four runs on five hits in eight innings. He walked three and fanned four. 

Welland will face the playoffs' lowest remaining seed in the second round.