The Diamondbacks travelled down the road to St.Thomas to play in the 12th Annual Cardinal Classic this past weekend and the boys came to play.
After coming up short as Finalist last season against the OBA "A" Champion Niagara Falls Falcons the Dbacks showed how solid of a team they are by playing some good baseball against some much larger centers. First up on Friday was the Markham Mariners ~ Led by some sold pitching by Colin Lanstaff and Sam Willsie the boys cruised to an opening game mercy victory with a score of 11-1.
In Game #2 Saturday morning, Ryker Daniel combined with Luke Norton and Lucas Wilson to hold down a tough Waterloo Tigers team. After falling behind early 3-0, after 3 innings the Diamondbacks fought back coming from behind with a 7 run 4th inning and 5 run 5th inning to close the door and win 12-5 to go 2-0 in pool play and take a commanding lead in Pool D.
The Saturday evening game, Game #3 of the weekend saw Zachary DosSantos start for the Dbacks vs the Mississauga Tigers. The start to game did not go so well as the Diamondbacks kicked the ball around a little and did not help themselves early as they fell behind 5-0 after 1 inning. Zach battled through 2 innings and reached his pitch limit and was picked up by Justin Barnes who shut down Mississauga only allowing 1 more run the rest of the way. In Diamondbacks fashion they came from behind as the offense woke up scoring 18 runs over 5 innings finishing once again with mercy victory. The win was sealed with a highlight Grand Slam walk off Home Run by Lucas Wilson to end the game.
By winning Pool D the Diamondbacks moved onto the Semi Final Sunday morning playing the Winner of Pool C which was the Lasalle Titans. The Diamondbacks came back to Ryker Daniel to start this ball game after only throwing 45 pitches Saturday. The start for Ryker was the finest of his young career as he went a complete game 5 inning mercy victory only giving up 5 base hits while striking out 2 and walking none.
The offense broke early in this game as the Diamondbacks scored 5 runs in the 1st inning and never looked back. They scored 4 more in the 2nd inning and 5 more in the 3rd and only need to bat thru 4 innings to secure victory. A few stars on offense were Matthew Rodenburg who went 3 for 3 and led the way. Sam Willsie, Lucas Wilson (3B), Colin Langstaff (2B), Jaxson Cragg, Justin Barnes and Tyler Libby (2B) all contributed 2 hits on the day.
Off to the Finals for the 2nd straight year!