The veteran southpaw went the distance in his latest mound appearance for the Mets, in which he held the Chatham Miramichi Honda Ironmen off the board and limited them to seven hits while issuing a walk and striking out seven in a 1-0 Moncton win July 15 in Miramichi.
Lund, who turns 29 in August, boasts a 6.30 earned-run average in 13-plus innings over four games, with 12 runs allowed on 19 hits, seven walks, and seven strikeouts.
“I’m coming back from an injury and still trying to iron things out,” he said after the July 15 win over Chatham, which was his second win of the year.
“We need to keep playing our game. We know we have a good lineup, with good arms and good defence. When every team plays their game, they’re hard to beat.”
So far, the Mets have been led on the mound this year by Matthew Donnison, who’s allowed just two hits in 10 innings over a four-game span. Declan Buckle’s line includes a run on six hits in five innings, while Adam Christie has a 2.80 ERA with three runs on four hits over five innings of work.
Justin Cormier and Josiah Coombes have carried the bulk of the pitching load for Moncton this season, with Cormier posting a 3.67 ERA with 26 runs on 47 hits in 42 innings, and Coombes logging a 7.22 ERA with 27 runs on 23 hits in 21-plus innings.
At the plate, brothers Luc Vautour and Serge Vautour have shined with batting averages of .429 and .378, respectively. They’ve combined for 41 hits in 101 at-bats. Jake Greene has been hitting at a .462 clip, while Donnison has registered a .500 average.
Jackson Dekker has a .375 average, followed by Declan Buckle at .367 and John Haimowitz at .359.
Mets assistant coach Mike Donahoe said the team can build on Lund’s performance July 15 as it looks to find its groove in its remaining games in an airtight senior circuit.
“We’ve had guys step up to the challenge and do their jobs all year,” he said. “When you’ve got a team that’s doing that type of thing, we should be set.
“Our season is going well, and I don’t think our record reflects how we’ve been playing. We’re a better ball club than that. But there’s so much parity in the league, and the people who benefit the most from that are people who come to the park to watch.”
The Mets and Ironmen will rematch Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Miramichi. Moncton will host the Fredericton St. Louis Bar and Grill Royals Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. showdown and entertain the Saint John AJ’s Alpines July 28 at 7 p.m.
The Royals (11-8) and defending champ Charlottetown Gaudet’s Auto Body Islanders (13-8) are in a hotly contested race for the regular-season pennant as the league gets down to the wire, with Fredericton sitting a game back of Charlottetown.
The Mets (10-8) are third in the five-team league, while the Ironmen (6-8) are in fourth and the Alpines (4-11) are in last.
The Royals have two games in hand on the Islanders. Moncton has played three fewer games than Charlottetown, and the Alpines have five games in hand. Chatham has played the fewest games at 14 as of Sunday night.
“This game was better than my other outings. I’ve still got some things to do and take care of, but we’re moving in the right direction.”
The difference in the game for the Mets July 15 at Ironmen Field was a scoring single from Serge Vautour in the top of the first inning that ultimately gave Moncton (8-8) its fourth consecutive win, and its sixth in the past 10 games.
“Chatham has always been a great hitting team, and they have a good mix of lefty and righty batters,” said Lund. “We can always expect a good challenge from them.
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