Minor Softball Update
from Ryan Greig
It’s a big week ahead for local minor ball teams.
The Tara Ron Nickason Construction Ltd. Twins and Chatsworth Longhorns will both be representing Ontario at the upcoming Canadian Softball Championships in Wilmot (New Hamburg) from August 3-7
There will be 8 teams participating in the tournament, with each team playing against one another in a 7 game round robin.
Tara will be the Ontario 2 seed, after finishing 3rd at the OASA elimination tournament.
Wilmot will be the host team, giving up their number 1 Ontario seed,
Napanee Express is Ontario 1, Tara ON2, St.George ON3 and Chatsworth ON4.
The Twins won their first game vs Fingal 10-1 and second game of the eliminations 8-3 vs Springbrook to get themselves into the undefeated game and a spot at Canadians.
They lost the undefeated game to eventual champions Wilmot 5-4, and then dropped the second semi final to Napanee 8-6.
Chatsworth took a longer path, losing their first game 6-1 to Springbrook, they then beat Havelock 16-1, Wyevale 11-1 then lost to Napanee 12-2.
That led to a rematch vs Springbrook for the final seed to Canadians, and they bounced back with a 6-4 win to get the 4th spot at the Canadians.
Each team will play 2 games each of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and one on Saturday morning to complete the round robin. The playoffs start Saturday afternoon, with the medal games taking place Sunday.
At the same time, the U13 OASA provincial championships will be happening in Princeton, beginning Friday August 5 until Sunday August 7th.
The Tara Rouse Builders Twins are in the 5th seed from the west as they went 1-2 at the provincial qualifier in Ponsonby July 15-17.
These Twins beat Ponsonby in the tournament opener 9-2, then lost a close game to the PDP Lightning 8-6 to drop them to the bottom of the bracket.
They then took on Norwich Otters, keeping it close for 6 innings before eventually losing 14-6.
The Tara McCartney Property Maintenance Twins kicked off their tournament with an 11-1 win over Norwich Otters on Friday, followed that up with a 20-4 win over Wilmot Thunder to advance to the undefeated game Sunday morning vs PDP Lightning.
The Twins won that game 15-0 to advance to the finals undefeated vs the Norwich Otters, who came all the way back the bottom side to get into the final.
The Otters brought that momentum to the final, jumping ahead 3-0, Tara tied it 3-3, Norwich responded with 2 more to go up 5-3, before Tara scored 3 more to take a 6-5 lead. Norwich bounced right back scoring 3 to go ahead 8-6, held Tara off and scored another 2 in the 5th inning to go ahead 10-6. Tara scored 2 of their own in the 5th to make it a 10-8 game and held Norwich at bay through the 6th and 7th to get a last crack at them in the bottom of the 7th. Landen McCartney led off with a single, taking 2 bases on wild pitches while Nathan Miller struck out. Darren Jacques hit a single to score McCartney to make it a 10-9 game. Jacques was then called out on a leadoff to clear the bases. Mason Bell reached base on an error, and then stole second base. Zak Hamilton then hit the game tying RBI single, and took second on the throw home. Colton Hepburn hit an infield single, followed by a throwing error, allowing Hamilton to score the winning run and walk it off for the Twins and give them the number 1 West seed.
The Rouse Builders now play Wilmot Thunder Friday August 5th at 2 pm and the Tara MPM Twins get a bye, and face the winner of Ponsonby and Hillsdale on Saturday August 6th at 8:30 am.
