BARRIE – After two close wins the Barrie Baycats left no doubt as to who was the better team in Game 3 of the Intercounty Baseball League semi-finals on Tuesday night.

Adam Hawes and two relievers combined on a three-hit shutout as the Baycats blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-0, taking a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and sending the Leafs to the brink of playoff elimination.

Game 4 in the series is Wednesday at Christie Pits, with Toronto needing a win to force a Game 5 Thursday in Barrie .

To get that win, the Leafs will have to be a lot better than they were Thursday, as they never recovered after the Baycats scored three runs in the third inning to take the early lead.

“They got the pitching and we didn’t,” Leaf owner Jack Dominico said. “It’s tough when you don’t have a lot of pitching left.

“We’re just going to have to find a way to get more offence and hopefully we get some good pitching of our own on Wednesday.”

Mike Lynch did his best for the Leafs, but after a long layoff was no match for the Barrie trio of Hawes, Scott Price and Jordan Hill.

Hawes went six innings and allowed three hits with five strikeouts and three walks, while Price added a scoreless inning and Hill pitched two perfect innings to finish up.

Lynch lasted 6 2/3 innings, allowing all six runs on nine hits with two strikeouts and four walks. The pitching thin Leafs then used rookie Ryan Mashinter, who got the last four outs in a row, but by then it was too little, too late.

Todd Betts blasted a two-run homer for the Baycats and had two hits, as did Matt Logan and Steve Lewis, who also drove in a pair of runs for the winners.

Kyle Degrace had the Leafs lone extra base hit of the game, a double, but Toronto struggled without the suspended Dan Gibbons and Gamin Teague in the lineup. Gibbons will be back Wednesday but Teague is out until at least Game 5 of the finals, if the Leafs stage what would be a miracle comeback in this series.