The D.L Hannon Mosquito OBA’s had
great outing during the Mitchell OBA tournament July 5-7th.
Mitchell faced Kitchener Friday night in the sweltering heat. The heat didn't seem to faze the boys as they were on the bats and making key plays through the game winning 7-2. Outstanding pitching was seen by Max Hannon, Jonah Gibbings and Matthew Menheere each going the distance. Kitchener tried to bust through Mitchell’s fielding, but big clutch catches from Landon VanBakel in the field were able to shut them down. With the help of Mitchell’s bats which were alive and firing, the Astros were able to maintain a strong lead all game and started the tournament off with their first win.
Saturday morning, the Astros faced St. Marys who had lost Friday night and were keen to get a win on the board early in the tournament. St. Marys tried to score early, sending a deep fly ball out to the field which was caught by Elijah Bender and with a quick turn-in the Astros were able to stall St. Marys and they couldn't advance their runners in the second inning. Strong pitching coming from the Astro’s mound, contributed to Mitchell holding St. Marys off until the fourth inning. St. Marys found their rhythm, as their second batter hit deep into the opposite corner, and started a home run rally that would ignite the charge for them. St. Marys continued to find all the holes in the Astros field and Mitchell ended up with a disappointing 11 – 1 loss in game two.
After a small break, the boys came back to the diamond for their second game Saturday afternoon, ready for anything that Ingersoll had for them. Logan Verberne and Charlie Wolfe set the tone of the game early, and the boys showed their opponents their confidence on the pitcher’s mound. However, later in the game, Ingersoll found the holes on the field and was able to score 11 runs during six innings of play. Mitchell’s bats were warming up, with solid hard hit singles by Owen Beauerman and Carson Brown touching green, but Ingersoll’s outfielders were quick to turn them in, and prevented the Astros from advancing across the plate. With Ingersoll chopping down the Astro’s hits, they kept their eyes on runners like Ethan Jarmuth and Braden Hoegy who were charged and ready to fire around the bases any chance they could get. Ryan Klumper pounded a hard hit down the first base line, cashing in 2 RBIs in first inning, and his glove was solid make some key outs on the diamond. Despite a great comeback by the Astros, they were only able to add 7 runs to their total, but fell short, losing 11-7 to Ingersoll in game three.
After losing two games in their round robin play, a strange turn of events saw Mitchell in a three way tie, and advanced the Astro’s to the Semi-Finals by 1/100th of a point on Sunday morning, against Tillsonburg.
Having played the Tillsonburg Otters earlier in the season, the Astor’s were fired and ready to play ball, and came out swinging against a fast and solid Tillsonburg pitcher. Ethan Jarmuth as lead-off batter started the game with a hard single to right field and even though the outfielders were quick to turn the ball in to first, Ethan’s speed was no match with his road runner wheels and the Astro’s had their first runner on base from the first pitch. The hits continued down the Astro’s batting order with Charlie Wolfe, Matthew Menheere and Ryan Klumper as they all got on base early in the game. Logan Verberne and Jonah Gibbings each cashed the boys in, giving Mitchell a comfortable 4 run lead early in the game. Tillsonburg came off the field ready to work their bats, however Mitchell solidly held Tillsonburg off for three additional innings keeping the score at 4-2 until the fourth. Tillsonburg came alive at the plate as they were singling through all of the gaps in the outfield and the Astro’s weren’t able make the play to get the outs they needed to maintain their early lead. With Tillsonburg now fired up at that the plate, Mitchell was left scrambling to hold the Otters at bay and ended up losing 14-4 in the semi-final game, ending their chance of advancement.
Despite the intense heat, The D. L Hannon Mosquito OBA Astros played a great weekend of ball and gave their hometown fans plenty to cheer about, during the Mitchell tournament. Well done boys!