25 degrees with a breeze was the perfect weather for the Zehr Insurance Bantam OBA boys to play their round robin tournament hosted by Kincardine Minor Baseball last weekend. They had an excellent weekend and made it to the semi-finals on Sunday against Corunna.
Game 1 they didn’t have to travel far as they played St. Mary’s on their own turf Friday night beating them 6 to 2.
St. Mary’s started out of the gate with a bang scoring two runs early on giving them a nice lead to start things off. However, their first batter wasn’t one of these runs as Mitchell’s catcher Ryan HARMER quickly retrieved a passed ball and tossed it to pitcher Jake MONDEN who ran in to cover home plate and tagged him out. It was a close play, but MONDEN’s sliced finger from the runner’s cleat was a sure sign that he did in fact tag the runner.
The 2nd inning brought a little hardship to the Mitchell team as Kyle RICHARDSON slid into home plate, was tagged out and then got placed on the DL for a knee injury. He sat out for two games re-entering the tournament in game 3. MONDEN was just one batter shy of pitching a complete game, so Jackson MACARTHUR took to the mound to finish off that last batter. Offensively, these boys were on fire. MONDEN got a triple in the 3rd and later stole home for the run. Drew MACLEAN and Alec MURRAY both hit the ball deep to centre field in the 4th. MACLEAN got a triple and MURRAY stretched his out to a double. HARMER also scored a run and Eric GETTLER scored two. Hands down the most exciting play of the night was when MACARTHUR leapt over St. Mary’s 2nd baseman in an attempt to remain safe. He came down and camped out on the base. The initial call was "safe", but after a conference between the umps it was decided he was tagged on his sleeve and was sent back to the dugout.
The candy bag was brought out once again this year after the game and the biggest hit was awarded to MACLEAN. He also got the MVP award for the game.
Game 2 the team travelled to Kincardine to play Exeter at 9:55am on Saturday. This game became a bit of a nail biter in the bottom of the 7th as the Exeter boys started to close the gap in the score, but Mitchell maintained their lead and ended things with an 8 to 6 victory.
Reid RAMSEYER protected the plate all game long. GETTLER was the starting pitcher and he completed his 65 pitches for the day taking the team into the 4th inning and acquiring 4 strikeouts along the way. HARMER (who is fairly new to the mound) finished off the 4th inning where he also got a strikeout. MACLEAN pitched next and Curt EIDT came in to close the game ensuring Exeter didn’t take their lead away.
In the 3rd inning, James COPELAND maintained the big hits by sending another ball out to centre field.
The 4th inning was very productive as the team rallied in 5 runs. MACARTHUR laid down a perfect bunt. He could not have done it better if he had caught the ball and placed it in front of the plate. This certainly flustered the other team since he found himself safe at 1st and collected two RBI’s in the process. Switch hitter, Ben SMALL, approached the plate on the opposite side as normal and got himself a single. He then proceeded to steal 2nd and 3rd and eventually turned that single into a run. MONDEN padded his stats with two more RBI’s as did HARMER with one more.
In the 5th, there was a pickle. These are by far the most exciting outs (as far as I’m concerned) that are made in a ball game and this kid was eventually tagged out by the expert pickle positioning of SMALL to MACARTHUR to EIDT to MONDEN.
The 6th inning ended in a double play where MONDEN caught a fly ball and gingerly stepped on 2nd.
HARMER bunted his way to a single in the 7th.
On the defensive, EIDT, MONDEN and MACLEAN had another perfectly played pickle. The runs in this game were scored by HARMER (2), MONDEN, GETTLER, MACLEAN (2), MACARTHUR and SMALL.
Exeter gave MACARTHUR the MVP for the game as he was clearly a star player in this game.
Game 3 occurred after a looooong afternoon at the beach. The boys finally took to the field at 7:15pm for their game against Listowel. Unfortunately, they were a few runs shy of a win this time and the game ended 4 to 1.
EIDT started the game on the mound and had a successful pick off at 3rd. RICHARDSON (who was back in the game) was the closer.
The team was not on the bats this game like the previous two, but they still did well defensively which helped keep the score close. MACLEAN decided that he would not be outdone by MACARTHUR’S acrobatic ability demonstrated in game 1. While attempting to steal home, he approached the plate, the catcher was waiting for him with the ball in glove, so naturally MACLEAN shot straight up and over the catcher, but despite the fantastic effort the plate ump did not hesitate to call him out!
The sole run of the game was scored by EIDT. Listowel rewarded MONDEN with the MVP award for being a key player in many of the outs they got against their team.
MITCHELL IS OFF TO THE SEMI-FINALS!!
On Sunday, July 17th at 11:15am the team arrived at the main diamond in Kincardine to take on Corunna in the semi-final game.
Strategic planning allowed for all of the team’s pitchers to be available for the semis and hopefully final game. MONDEN started things out on the mound followed by EIDT and then GETTLER finished the game. Mitchell struggled on the bats again and only MONDEN, COPELAND and MURRAY actually got a hit. MURRAY tried to fire up his team late in the 6th by crushing the ball and getting a triple, but he would be the only runner to cross the plate.
With a final score of 9 to 1 they would not see the final game of the tournament.
It takes all 11 players to complete this team. These boys have a tight bond on and off the field and when they are on they are unstoppable. It is a pleasure to watch them in action.
Great weekend boys!