Mosquito OBA Capture Championship in Clinton, News (Mitchell Minor Baseball)

The Mitchell Stickhandler Mosquito OBA Astros defeated the Saugeen Shores Sting 11-7 in the championship game of the Clinton tournament on May 28th.  The locals avenged an earlier 10-5 round-robin loss to Saugeen with the victory.

Starter Josh French went 3.1 innings, piling up 8 strikeouts and exiting with a 5-4 lead after reaching the maximum allowable pitches.  He was relieved by Jordan Visneskie who finished up for the save.
Jack Miller was 3-for-3 with a double and 3 runs scored, twice being pushed along the bases by French sacrifice bunts.  Extra base hits were also recorded by Visneskie and Kellen Russwurm, and Dominic Marshall and Jack Small each scored twice.  The locals flashed the leather in the top of the 6th to keep their opponents at bay, with diving catches made in the infield by French and Caleb Templeman.  Catcher Jarrett Van Bakel was solid all weekend, blocking balls and keeping runners from advancing.
After the opening night comeback vs Clinton, the Astros faced Kitchener on Saturday at 12:30pm, coming out swinging hard and putting a 12-0 victory on the board.  Despite the offensive onslaught, Small was the only Mitchell batter to reach base each time.  Nine different players in the lineup each scored at least one run, with Lucas Roobroeck and Small each crossing twice.  Roobroeck, Van Bakel, and Dominic Marshall each recorded doubles, and French and Templeman stroked back-to-back RBI triples in the third.  Starting pitcher French stymied the Kitchener batters from the opening pitch, mixing speeds and location effectively and striking out the side in the first inning.  Nine strikeouts combined would be recorded by French and Templeman.
Mitchell suffered their only loss of the tournament on Saturday afternoon, dropping a 10-5 decision in round-robin action to Saugeen Shores.  After a three-up-three-down half of the first inning, the Astros briefly took the lead 3-2 in the second.  Visneskie opened the inning with a triple in the gap, and was driven home by Roobroeck's RBI double, who was then doubled home by Small.  The highlight of the game was a huge solo home run blast by Roobroeck out of the park to straightaway centrefield in Holmesville, traveling an estimated 265 feet!  It would be the last run to cross the plate for the locals, who could not muster any further offense for the remainder of the game, but would avenge the loss in the final.