Aug 19, 2019 | Trevor Russwurm | 672 views
Rain Suspends ICBA Tier 2 Playoff Tournament - Play Resumes Tues Night
The Mitchell Stratford RV Peewee OBA Astros returned home a tired bunch from the trip to Cooperstown, NY, but went right back to work on Friday August 16th as the ICBA Playoff Tournament began, hosted by the Stratford Nationals.
Ranked as the #2 seed going into the tournament, the Astros would face the #9 seed Brantford Red Sox. The effects of Cooperstown showed, as the locals narrowly escaped with a 14-13 win over an opponent they had outscored 58-13 during the regular season. Brantford struck first as the leadoff batter reached on an error, followed by a deep RBI double to left centre off the wall, and it was quickly 2-0. Mitchell would even it up in the bottom half as Caleb Templeman and Jordan Visneskie had run-scoring singles in support of starter Keegan Priestap. Down 6-5 after four innings of play, the locals broke it open with a 7-run fifth inning, paced by a 2-run triple from Joel Meinen and 2-run double by Visneskie. Josh French and Carson Harmer each drove in what looked to be an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, but things got interesting in the last inning as Brantford brought 10 batters to the plate and scored 7 runs, including a two-run home run out of the park at Dufferin. Reliever Templeman induced a game-inning groundout to second base to end the threat.
On Saturday afternoon the Astros would square off with the Guelph Royals, dropping a 7-6 decision that would leave them one loss away from elimination in the tournament. Starter French was quickly down 2-0, but the locals would battle back to tie the game 5-5 in the sixth. A two-run Guelph double in the top of the 7th was the finishing blow, as Mitchell could only get one back in the bottom half. Ryan Hubbard scored two runs, and French and Visneskie both had extra-base hits.
Sunday afternoon's opponent would be Kitchener Panthers 1. French would draw another start after being kept under the pitch count limit vs Guelph the previous day, combining with closer Hubbard on a four-hitter for a 9-2 victory, including five shutout innings to start the game. Visneskie scored three runs on a triple and pair of walks, and French and Jack Miller both doubled and scored.
Next game was scheduled for 5:30pm vs #1 seed Listowel Legionnaires who earlier had also lost to Guelph, with the loser of this game eliminated. However, heavy rain postponed the game until Tues Aug 20th, with first pitch at 6:00pm at Optimist Park.
Good luck Astros!