Sep 05, 2017 | Jim DosSantos | 579 views
OBA "C" Championships in Essex ~ Silver Medalists!
Over this past Labour Day Weekend our Major Mosquito Diamondbacks travelled to Essex to face stiff competition at the OBA "C" Championships and our boys did not disappoint as they made us proud.
The weekend started with the Diamondbacks facing the hosts, The Essex Yellowjackets. The Dbacks started a little slow in this one but with some fine pitching by our ace Colin Langstaff and some timely hitting and base running our boys managed to bang out an 11-2 opening round victory to get us rolling.
Saturday's game started us playing the winner of the second bracket and which happened to be the Beamsville Stingers. The Stingers did not know what hit them in this one as the boys came out swinging. Every Diamondback player in the line up had at least one solid hit and on the mound Ryker Daniel and Lucas Wilson logged our innings holding the Stingers at bay. When the dust settled the Diamondback's mercied the Beamsville team 22-7 after 5 innings.
Our 3rd game of the Tournament was one to remember as the Diamondbacks took on one of the favourites for the title, the Listowel Legionaires. This game was a battle for both teams as Zachary DosSantos took on the Legionaire's ace. Both players pitched exceptionally well and up to their 45 pitch limit that their coaches were holding them to. Zach managed to get through 4 innings giving up only 1 hit and leaving with a 1-0 lead. The lead was thanks to Colin Langstaff who managed to get a hit, steal 2nd and then get to 3rd, then score the games only run on a passed ball. Luke Norton came in and shut the door for 3 innings to seal the win. He only gave up 3 hits, however one was a triple hammered to right field with two outs in the 7th inning. Luke however made the play of the game by retiring the Legionaire's best hitter to end the game stranding the tying run at 3rd for the win. He had some help from Matthew Rodenburg getting the ball in quick and some fine relay work to hold the tying run a 3rd base. It was an exciting finish and the Diamondbacks became the only undefeated team into Sunday's play.
Sunday's play had the Diamondbacks facing off in an early morning affair against league rivals the Ingersoll Iron Birds. The Iron Birds had seemed to have the Dback's number lately so it was going to be a battle. The Dback's went back to Zach DosSantos on the hill this game who pitched outstanding again however was let down by some poor defensive play in the field leading to 5 unearned runs. The Diamondbacks were completely shut down by Ty Shapton the Ingersoll starter who held the Diamondbacks to 1 run during his time in the game. Zach managed to pitch 5 innings and all of his 70 pitches but the offense just could not get it in gear. The Diamondbacks lost 6-2 and suffered their first loss and a missed a great opportunity to have to be beaten twice in the finals.
With the loss the Diamondbacks now did not control their own destiny. Because we already had a bye, a draw bye for a was done between the two teams left ~ Ingersoll and Listowel with the winner going right to the Championship game and the loser playing the Diamondbacks in a Semi Final game. Listowel won it and the boys opponent for the 2nd straight game was the Ingersoll Ironbirds.
This time around the game was as just as tough but the result was better. The boys were able to come away with a close 5-3 victory moving them to the final. The Boys had a slow start with the bats and a few troubles in the field behind starter Ryker Daniel giving the Iron Birds and an early 3-0 lead. The boys managed to get one run back early and it stayed that way until the 5th when the Diamondbacks finally broke through with three runs of their own taking a 4-3 lead. They were able to add one more in the 6th as Lucas Wilson drove in an insurance run with his triple. It was almost a HR as he was called out at the plate on a bang bang play to end the inning but the Dbacks managed a 5-3 to hand the lead to Colin Langstaff to close it out. Colin manage to finish the last couple of innings closing the door and had some better defense behind him as we managed to throw out a runner of theirs at home to keep the lead and win the game.
Our shot at the Championship Rings was short lived as our Diamondbacks just did not seem to have anything left in the tank as they took the field to start the game against the Legionaires for the 2nd time in the weekend. The Listowel team came out swinging against Langstaff in the 1st, scoring 5 runs and making him throw 30 of his remaining 34 pitches. From there the boys just could not get anything going at the plate against Listowel's ace pitcher who was dominant. He threw 4-2/3 innings using his 70 pitches for a near complete game shut victory ~ the Diamondbacks eventually fell 10-0 to a very good team.
I am very proud of our boys for fighting to the end and giving all they had. The last fours years at OBA's at various levels we have made it to the final Sunday finishing 2nd in "A", Winning "C', finishing 3rd in "B" and now this year Runner Up again in "C" (2nd). That is amazing accomplishment and some consistency that few teams have. A few bounces here and a little luck we very well could have been Champions Multiple times.
Great Job Boys.