A tremendous team effort was showcased by the Wolfe Flooring
Major Rookie OBA’s, during the Wyoming Wranglers Rookie Classic tournament July
7th – 9th.
With severe thunderstorm warnings for the area forecasted on Friday night, the Wolfe Flooring Major Rookie OBA’s opened the tournament by playing Wyoming in game one of their divisional play. Early in the game Wyoming was strong on the bats going ahead and scoring 5 runs during the first two innings, but Mitchell’s defense lit up and held the hosts to two additional scoreless innings by making smart fielding choices for quick outs. Under darkening skies, Mitchell’s offence was sparked, and the OBA’s scored 12 runs before a major thunderstorm complete with hail, flooded the entire field midway through Mitchell’s bat in the 4th inning, immediately ending the game in a 12-5 victory for the Wolfe Flooring OBA’s.
Under soggy field conditions, all of Saturday’s games were moved over to the Petrolia diamonds, where Mitchell’s first opponent of the day was Dorchester. Dorchester mercied Mitchell in the first inning, and left Mitchell trailing by four runs. However, in the second inning, Mitchell pulled together as a team to rally at the plate and plowed through their batting order, to mercy Dorchester. On the field the OBA’s made clean defensive plays which only allowed their opponent to score one additional run in the bottom half of the second inning. Mitchell continued to dominate the game both at the plate and on the diamond, and secured an impressive 20-8 win over Dorchester.
Later Saturday afternoon, the OBA’s struggled early in the game and fell 14 runs behind Coruna’s 19 run lead by the end of the fourth inning. However, a double play by Mitchell to end the fourth inning for the OBAs ignited a spark for the team on the field, and they were able to keep Corunna from scoring any additional runs in the game. However, at the plate, the OBA’s were only able to add two more runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth inning which was not enough to overcome Coruna’s lead, and Mitchell had their first loss in the tournament.
After advancing through the start of the tournament with record of 2 wins and 1 loss, Mitchell was in a 4 way tie at the end of the divisional play. Once the determining tiebreakers were factored in, the Major Rookie OBA’s were eventually placed in 4th, which advanced the team to the quarter final game, against the number one seeded team.
A very early 8 a.m. start on Sunday morning, for the Wolfe Flooring OBA’s back in Wyoming, could arguablely be the highlight game of the weekend for the team. The Wolfe Flooring OBA’s pulled out all the stops against the Leamington Lakers and left everything they had out on the field. Mitchell dominated at the plate in the first inning with Landon VanBakel and Charlie Wolfe each batting in one runner, and Max Hannon drove in two runs with a hard single. During the second inning at the plate, Jonah Gibbings, Griffin Bree, and Jack Crowley each singled to load the bases for the OBA’s. Logan Verberne and Ethan Jarmuth each drove in one of these runners, and then with two outs Ryan Klumper crushed a two run home run to bring the other runner around the bases, allowing the OBA’s to take an early 8 run lead in the game. After trailing behind the OBA’s, Leamington took a time-out to re-group, and rallied back both on the diamond and at the plate, and slowly Mitchell saw their lead decreasing. A two-run home run shot for Leamington in the fourth inning, saw the go-ahead run cross the plate. Despite several key catches made behind the plate by Mathew Menheere and Zack Siemon, and an impressive catch made in the outfield by Elijah Bender, Mitchell was unable to maintain their lead, and fell in 10-9 in a hard-fought battle against Leamington.
Congratulations on an outstanding weekend of baseball! Way to make us all proud boys!!!