LONDON – The Toronto Maple Leafs picked the perfect time for their biggest inning of the season.

The Leafs scored nine runs in the top of the sixth inning to stun the London Majors 10-7 on Monday night, winning their best-of-seven Intercounty Baseball League opening round series four games to two.

Toronto now advances to the IBL semi-finals against the pennant winning Barrie Baycats while the Brantford Red Sox and the Guelph Royals will do battle in the other best-of-seven semi-final.

“The bats really exploded tonight, that sixth inning turned the whole series around,” a reliever Leaf owner Jack Dominico said. “Usually it’s pitching that decides a series but this time it was our bats, we had a great hitting game.

“It’s good to get the first series over with, this was tough with the weather delays and back and forth games. We came up with the big hits when we had to and now we move on.”

London took an early 5-1 lead thanks primarily to a three run second inning, when Will Richards had a two-run single and Chris Chambers added a solo homer, his first of two on the night. But the Leafs teed off in the sixth to take the lead for good to finally close down the series.

London tried to rally back on Chambers second homer of the game in the eighth and scored another run in the ninth but could get no closer.

Kyle Degrace had a three-run double as part of the big sixth inning uprising, and the Leafs took advantage of eight walks issued by London pitchers to make the most of their seven hits.

Gamin Teague had two hits for the Maple Leafs, who also got a gritty pitching performance from Marek Deska.

Deska went the distance, allowing seven runs on nine hits, but made the big pitches when it counted in his second complete game of the series.

Aaron Boag took the loss for the Majors, who end their season in disappointment after making it to the finals against Brantford last year, only to lose in seven games after winning the pennant.