Back: John Townshend, Mark Godwin, Cory Ewart, Sonny Daniels, Jeff Latta, Josh Bridgeman, Jordan
Townshend, Brendon Dantzer, Coltan Durnin, Rudy Godwin
Front: Mike Gough, Kyle Harris, Craig Orton, Brendan Wraith, Ryan Barker, Jay Tighe
Ilderton Juniors Complete Dream Season
The Ilderton Reds Junior team had an overall season record of 32-9-1. They were LDBA pennant winners with a record of 16-3-1, and completed League Playoffs with a perfect 3-0 record by defeating Oakridge once and St. Thomas twice in the double knockout tournament format. In the league final against the St. Thomas Cardinals the game went 3 extra innings until Ilderton secured victory in the 10th. Cory Ewart started for Ilderton and went 4 strong innings leaving with a 2-1 lead. Jeff Latta came on in relief in the 5th. St. Thomas scored one run in the 6th to tie the game and the game went into the 10th inning still tied 2-2. Jeff Latta drew a leadoff walk in the top of the 10th and Mark Godwin laid down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown away, advancing runners to second and third. Ryan Barker then hit a deep sacrifice fly to left scoring Latta while Godwin tagged at second and advanced to third drawing a bad throw on the relay and scoring on the same play. Latta shut down St. Thomas in the bottom of the10th and Ilderton defeated St. Thomas 4-2 capturing their second league title in as many years.
The Reds won a tournament in Wyoming going 4-1 and defeating the host Wyoming Cowboys in the final 3-2, and were semi-finalists in two A tournaments, one hosted by St. Thomas and the other by Burlington.
In the Ontario Baseball Junior B Championships hosted by Chatham, Ilderton used solid pitching and defense along with some timely hitting to go undeated and win the championship rings. Along with Ilderton, this
tournament included teams from Peterborough, Windsor, Milton, Burlington and Chatham. In the opening game vs. Milton, Ilderton jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the 1st only to see Milton respond with 2
runs in the their half of the inning. Ilderton starting pitcher Brendon Dantzer, didn't give up any more runs after the 1st inning and the game went into the 6th tied 2-2. In the top of the 6th Kyle Harris got to first
after being hit by a pitch and Jeff Latta drove him home with a triple deep in the right field corner. Jordan Townshend started the 6th in relief of Dantzer and retired six in a row with 4 strikeouts in his two innings
of work to secure the victory. In the second game vs. Burlington Jeff Latta pitched a complete game
shutout while allowing only 4 hits and striking out 9 to earn a 2-0 win. Ilderton scored their two runs in the 2nd inning on a leadoff triple by Sonny Daniels a walk to Kyle Harris and back to back RBI singles by Jeff
Latta and Cory Ewart. After receiving a bye in the third round Ilderton faced Burlington again in their third game. It began as another tight game going into the 5th inning tied 1-1. In the bottom of the 5th Ilderton shortstop Mark Godwin lead of with a single and Craig Orton followed with a bunt single. Mike Gough the hit a triple, scoring both runners and Ilderton went on to score 4 more runs in that inning and one more in the sixth to win 8-1 and eliminate Burlington from the tournament. Jordan Townshend picked up the win going all 7 innings while allowing 2 hits and striking out 12. Ilderton went to the final game against the host Chatham team who had already lost one game in the double-knockout tournament and would have to beat Ilderton twice. This game started with Ilderton taking advantage of their speed and capitalizing on some early Chatham errors. In the 1st inning Ilderton scored it's first run with Craig Orton stealing home and this seemed to shakeup the Chatham team who found themselves trailing 5-0 after 3 innings. However, Chatham fought their way back into the game with some seeing eye singles in the fourth inning and Ilderton starter Sonny
Daniels gave way to Latta in relief. Chatham scored one more run in the fifth to tie the score at 5. Ilderton threatened in every inning from the 5 through the 8th but could not score while Jordan Towshend who had
started the 6th in relief of Latta held Chatham hitless. In the top of the 9th inning Mike Gough lead off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Josh Bridgman. Gough went to third on a passed ball and was looking to score on a basehit or sacrifice fly when the Chatham catcher threw a ball wildly back to the pitcher and Gough scappered home to give Ilderton a 6-5lead. Townshend completed the bottom of the 9th by stiking out all 3Chatham batters and earning Ilderton the Championship.
In three seasons at the Junior level (ages 19-21) Ilderton won two LDBA pennants and were League finalists all three years while winning the last two. In Ontario Playdowns, Ilderton won Junior D in 2006 were silver
Medallists in Junior C in 2007 and completed their Junior year with a Junior B championship.
Coaches John Townshend and Rudy Godwin would like to congratulate their players on a very successful Junior career and look forward to putting together a Senior team that can have as much fun and success over
many baseball seasons to come.
