Mosquito OBA Clinch Hometown Tournament Championship, News (Mitchell Minor Baseball)

The Stickhandler Mosquito OBA Astros competed in the 2017 Mitchell Mosquito/Peewee Tournament on July 7-9th, capturing the championship on Sunday with a thrilling 8-5 victory over Dorchester.  Starting pitcher and game MVP Josh French scattered five hits through 5 2/3 innings, and Jack Small came on to close the win out.

The locals jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead as French and Jarrett Van Bakel both reached on an error and walk.  Jordan Visneskie drove in the first run, with the second scoring on a sacrifice bunt by Caleb Templeman.  Dorchester would tie it up in the opening inning, but Mitchell would pull ahead again in the second as Kellen Russwurm reached base and scored on an infield error.  Strong defense led to a 1-2-3 bottom of the second, including an inning-ending double play.  The Astros added four more runs in the third as French, Van Bakel, Visneskie, and Small would all score to open up a 7-2 lead.  Strong pitching and defense would shut the opposing bats down for the next three innings, but things got a little tense when Dorchester hit a bases-clearing triple in the sixth inning to reduce the lead to 7-5.  Catcher Van Bakel squashed the rally, eventually picking the runner off at third.  Mitchell would add a run in the seventh as Jack Miller reached base on a two-out error and eventually scored on Van Bakel's RBI single.  Closer Small allowed one base runner to reach third in the seventh but eventually shut the door himself on a comebacker to the mound to seal the victory.
The Astros opened tournament round robin play on Friday night with a 17-0 mercy win in three innings over Tillsonburg as every batter in the lineup scored at least once.  French went the distance, striking out seven.  Visneskie and Dominic Marshall each scored three runs, and a total of eight extra-base hits were recorded in the 12-run third inning as the bats erupted.
Saturday morning the locals faced Lucan-Ilderton, opening with a quick three-up-three-down to start the game, and quickly jumping on the bats in bottom half to score five runs and never look back on the lead.  Lucan-Ilderton would score two runs in the second inning, but that would be all they would manage off starter Templeman in a 10-2 Mitchell win.  Eight Mitchell batters would each score a run, with Miller scoring twice.
A tough test looked to await the locals in the Saturday evening game, squaring off against the Stratford Nationals majors with Visneskie on the mound.  Dominic Marshall opened the game with a solid single, and after two quick outs and Visneskie aboard on a hit-by-pitch, Templeman stroked a two-run triple to open the scoring.  Stratford briefly took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the second, but Mitchell regained the lead in the fourth with a six-run outburst.  Stratford would again pull within one run in the fourth to bring the score to 8-7.  The Astros would explode for four more runs in the sixth as Lucas Roobroeck doubled to start things off and Miller hammered a two-run triple right down the left field line.  The final score was 14-7 for Mitchell, earning a berth in the semi-finals on Sunday morning vs Exeter.
The bats once again were on fire on Sunday morning, as Mitchell quickly opened up a 10-0 lead on the hard-hitting Express, including an 8-run outburst in the second.  Exeter fought back with five runs of their own in the bottom half on starter Keegan Priestep, and added two more in the third to make it 10-7.  A four-run sixth inning would add insurance runs, as Mitchell came out on top by a score of 15-10 to earn the trip to the finals. A pair of runs each were scored by Marshall, French, Van Bakel, Roobroeck, Miller, and Ryan Hubbard.