The Thorold Anchors (3-3) climbed back to the .500 mark on Tuesday night at McMillan Park with an emphatic 10-2 victory over the Welland Pioneers (3-4).

The Anchors’ offense started the game in the bottom of the first inning strongly when Mark Suntz came around to score after singling off of starter Robert Page (2-2) to take a 1-0 lead.

Thorold’s defense had a stellar night highlighted by a double play to end the top of the fourth inning. Catcher Dylan Dempsey fielded a check swing dribbler off the bat of former Anchor Nick Schwab in front of the plate and fired it to first base for one out before Dan Smith completed the double play back to Dempsey who tagged out runner Tim Somerville trying to score to end the inning.

The Anchors broke the game wide open in the bottom half of the fourth inning when Mark Suntz hammered a 1-0 offering from Jeremy Pysher to deep center field for a triple that scored Justin Turner, Nolan Procyshyn and Dalton Procyshyn to make the game 5-0.

Thorold would tack on a couple more runs against Pysher in the fifth inning to extend the lead to 7-0 before the Pioneers intentionally walked the red-hot Mark Suntz to setup a lefty-lefty matchup between reliever Will Newton and first baseman Dan Smith. Smith worked the count full before making Welland pay for their decision to face him by pummeling a bases clearing single on the sixth pitch of the at bat down the right field line to make the score 10-0.

Welland was able to break the shutout in the sixth inning with rbi hits from Somerville and Ben Baltrusiunas to make the score 10-2. Overall, starter Kyle D’Angela (1-0) pitched a strong six innings allowing two runs on three hits with two walks while striking out seven Pioneers. Justin Vescio-West finished out the game with a clean seventh inning.

Leaders offensively for Thorold included Suntz 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored, 3 rbi and a stolen base, Smith 1 for 3 with 3 rbi, and Jacob Turner 1 for 3 with 2 runs scored and 2 stolen bases.

The Anchors next game is tonight at 7:30pm on the road down the QEW against the Fort Erie Cannons (0-5).