Bantam Selects make final 4 in Barrie Tourney
Bloordale’s Bantam Select team participated in the West Hill tournament on July 6 – 8 and had a great time. We started on Friday by drawing the late card an 8:45 start against our West Loop opponent Royal York 2 (Minor). In this game we have some exciting plays with some solid defense and key hits but the story of the game was our starting pitcher. Subhaan Khan started and pitched a masterful 1 walk complete game. He threw 38 pitches and yes was one walk away from a perfect game and we won 10 – 0 and Subhaan won the player of the game for Bloordale.
The next game was Saturday Morning against a team from Pickering (majors) and we battled them to a 6-4 win. All the players pitched in with some spectacular defense plays and we had some timely hitting to preserve the win. This game our reliever and centre fielder Nikolas Kumonen was the Player of the game.
Last inning 2 out clutch double clears bases for tie
The third game of the round robin was against Oakville 2 (major). This game was one of the most difficult games the boys had played to this point of the season. Oakville scored first with one run in the first and then we answered back with one to tie the game up. The Oakville team had some real quality pitchers and challenged us all game long. This is not to say our pitching was not equal to the task as they performed very well. We were able to keep in this game with a real defensive struggle but they did chip away and score 5 runs to have us down 5- 1 in the last inning. This was where the Bloordale showed their heart, the players were a little down going into the bottom of the inning but every kid at the plate battled and we ended up with bases loaded and two outs with our #7 hitter Justin Curia coming to the plate. Justin had started the game at pitcher and threw very well for 2+ innings but this was not where he was to shine on this day. Justin came to the plate and I believe was at a count of 2 – 2 and the next pitch Justin crushed a bases clearing double to tie the game. The next batter was unable to cash Justin and the game was over. We knew going into this game that a tie would give us first in our division as we had a better runs against ratio than the team we played. We were now first in our division and Justin was the player of the game.
We now move onto the semi-finals against a team from Barrie. This proved to be a difficult game for the kids. We played hard but made too many errors in the first inning to be able to come back from a 5 run deficit. The players battled hard and tightened up defensively but just could not generate the offense needed. We had a hard time getting hits or even a base runner as Barrie was playing solid. Their pitcher was throwing hard and accurate and the defense was backing him up. Bloordale did not even threaten until late in the game when Arjay Loewen hit a bomb for a double and then stole third off a very good pitcher and catcher. This set the stage as there was one down and Cameron Buck at the plate. Cameron was able to generate a long sac fly to score Arjay from third. Arjay was selected player of the game for Bloordale and had some solid defense at second base. This was our only run as we lost in the semi-final 8 – 1 but the score was not reflective of how the kids played.
Overall, this was a great tournament and the kids played their hearts out. We as coaches and parents were very proud of what the kids accomplished and believed they learned a lot about themselves and their abilities and can only get better as the season moves along.
(Article submitted by Bantam Head Coach Russ Loewen)