Major Mosquitos Defend Title In Mitchell Tournament, News (Mitchell Minor Baseball)

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2018 Major Mosquito OBA | Jul 08, 2018 | Trevor Russwurm | 1441 views
Major Mosquitos Defend Title In Mitchell Tournament
The Stickhandler Major Mosquito Astros captured the championship in the Mitchell Mosquito Tournament, defeating Tillsonburg 18-6 in the final and going undefeated for the weekend (4-0-1) to defend their title from last season.

The Astro bats went right to work in the opening inning, plating five runs as Carson Harmer and Dawson White drew leadoff walks and executed a double steal. Kellen Russwurm reached base on an error, and Jack Miller would walk to force in the game's first run.  Jordan Visneskie delivered the big blow with a two-out bases-clearing triple, scoring himself on a wild pitch to build a 5-0 lead.  Tillsonburg would get one runner aboard with two out in the bottom of the first, only to be gunned down by catcher Harmer on an attempted steal.
Mitchell erupted for six more runs in the second inning, starting with a walk to Joel Meinen and Keegan Priestap reaching on a hit-by-pitch, followed by Ryan Hubbard dropping down a beautiful bunt to load the bases.  After a Harmer walk to force in one run, Russwurm smacked a three-run triple in the right centre gap and then would score on Miller's RBI groundout.  Dominic Marshall belted a triple immediately after, scoring on Visneskie's single to make it 11-0.
Starter Priestap scattered five hits over four innings with five strikeouts.  Tillsonburg mounted some offense in the bottom of the second, loading the bases and delivering a bases-loaded triple, but Priestap would settle down to strike out the side and end the threat.  Hubbard would come on to close out the win in the fifth by striking out the side.  Efficiently scoring every inning, Medhurst greeted the new pitcher in the top of the third with a leadoff triple, scoring on Priestap's RBI groundout.  The defensive highlight of the weekend was in the bottom half, as third baseman Hubbard knocked down a hard smash on the line, throwing an off-balance bullet to first baseman White for the out, who immediately pivoted and gunned home to Harmer to get the sliding runner trying to sneak in from third.  Mitchell would add two more runs in the fourth inning on back-to-back solo home runs by Visneskie and Marshall.  Rounding out the scoring in the fifth would be Cody Bach and Meinen with leadoff singles followed by a two-run double by Priestap.  Harmer would drive in the final run of the inning, and three outs later the Mosquito Astros were champions once again!
The locals opened tournament play on Friday night with a lopsided 18-0 mercy win over Walkerton.  Starter Visneskie threw the three-inning complete game shutout with four strikeouts.  Russwurm led at the plate with a triple, home run, and four RBI's.  Harmer hit a three-run homer and Visneskie added a two-run shot in the full-out assault.  Marshall was 3-for-3, scoring all three times on base, while Miller also tripled during the 7-run second inning.
Saturday morning's opponent was Alvinston, and the locals needed a based-loaded walk by Russwurm in the sixth inning to salvage a 10-10 tie.  After Mitchell opened up a 3-0 lead on singles to Harmer and Russwurm plus an RBI double to White, Alvinston knocked starter Harmer around for five runs in the bottom half.  Russwurm and Miller would come on in relief, and Hubbard would finish it off by striking out the side in the bottom of the sixth to preserve the tie.
Priestap's first start of the tournament was Saturday afternoon in the final round robin game vs Kawartha, and he was dealing it again tossing a tidy three innings of one-run work.  Medhurst came on in relief in the fourth, and Kawartha mounted a big comeback rally with eight runs on four hits and three errors but it wasn't enough as Mitchell scored seven runs each in the bottom of the the third and fourth to finish in a 21-9 victory.  Miller and Marshall reached base in all three at-bats, each scoring three times.  Harmer, Russwurm, and Charlie Geiger each had a stolen base and Miller and Visneskie each hit solo home runs.
Sunday morning the Astros would face Kincardine in the semi-final, advancing to the final with a convincing 21-0 shutout win.  The bats started slowly with only Harmer scoring in the first inning on an RBI groundout by White following a leadoff triple.  Starter Visneskie went to work quickly, finishing the complete game shutout with eight strikeouts over four innings.  Harmer had a monster game at the plate, finishing 4-for-4 with two triples, a grand slam home run, six RBI's, and three runs scored.  Visneskie would also homer, and additional triples were each hit by White, Geiger, and Medhurst in the offensive outburst.
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