Announcement
ST. THOMAS WINS SILVER AT MINOR MOSQUITO 'A' OBAs
Posted by Diane Wakefield on
Sep 03 2008
at
05:00PM PDT
Cardinals take fans on thrill ride
Posted By Rob Ross, TIMES-JOURNAL STAFF
It will be a weekend to remember for two of the top teams their age in Ontario. The North London Nationals captured the Ontario Baseball Association minor mosquito A championship by beating the St. Thomas Optimist Cardinals 9-4 Sunday in the final at the Douglas J. Tarry Sports Complex.
"To cap a great year with a OBA championship game, I'm very proud of the boys," Cardinals manager Derek Brooks said. "The guys showed a lot of character all weekend." Twice St. Thomas rallied in the seventh inning for victories, including their semifinal against Richmond Hill, when Brendan Echlin punched out a walk-off single to score a jubilant Oliver Piotrowski. St. Thomas may have been done in by the OBA pitch count rule which limits each pitcher to a certain amount of pitches thrown per game as well as overall during the tournament. "Pitching made a difference. Our philosophy all weekend was we weren't planning for the next game with our pitchers," Brooks said. "We didn't want to be thinking about the next game because you have to win a game to get to it." Twice St. Thomas pitchers had to exit the game after reaching the maximum. "All the pitchers we used were on limited pitches. We used every single pitch that they had," Brooks said. North London manager Greg Keyes acknowledged St. Thomas losing pitching was a factor. "The pitch count is so critical and it's important how you work your pitchers," said Keyes. "In the last game it worked out in our favour." Three consecutive singles to lead off the the Nationals' fourth inning resulted in three runs and broke a 3-3 tie. That outburst, and an game-ending injury to McDonald, hurt the Cardinals. Pitchers Jordan Ellis and Alex Lamont kept St. Thomas off balance and combined to strike out 12 Cards. On the other side, four of the Nationals who reached base on balls, scored. St. Thomas led 2-0 after one inning on an Echlin single and a ground out by Griffin Luce. North London tied the game an inning later. In the fourth, the Cardinals pushed ahead 3-2 on a Justin McDonald RBI single that scored Luce, who had tripled. North London took control with three runs in each of the fourth and seventh innings. Nicholas Medeiros knocked in the final St. Thomas run on a sacrifice fly to score Trevor Ross. Spencer Bak went 2-for-2 with one base on balls and two RBIs for the Nationals, while Matt Gibson had a pair of RBI singles. St. Thomas defeated Niagara Falls 20-6, Guelph 16-3 and Peterborough 6-3 to advance to the game of the undefeated teams. Michael Mommersteeg had a two-run homer against Guelph. Luce batted 3-for-3 against Niagara, while Jakob Rick scored four runs after reaching base on three walks and an error. Trailing 3-2 after six innings, Luce and Echlin each had RBI singles as St. Thomas scored four times in the seventh to beat Peterborough. A three-run fifth inning lifted the Cardinals over North London 6-5 Saturday night, leaving them as the only undefeated team among five clubs heading in to action Sunday. Delaware stung the Cardinals 17-10, denying the home team a direct route to the final. In the semifinals, St. Thomas regrouped and then rallied to score a run in the bottom of each of the sixth and seventh innings to edge Richmond Hill 3-2. Nicholas Medeiros tied the game on a sacrifice fly, before Echlin sent the Cardinals to the final. North London disposed of Delaware in their semifinal. "I've never seen the boys as happy and as focused as they were all weekend," said Brooks. "One thing we struggled with this season was stringing a few wins together, so to be able to win the number of games we won this weekend is an accomplishment." North London took both the London and District Baseball Association pennant and playoff titles. "We've had an incredible year," said Keyes. "The kids have worked extremely hard and we focused on a couple of things and having fun was one." The LDBA had four of the final five teams, including North London, St. Thomas, Oakridge and Delaware.Comments
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