OTTAWA- Three National Championship tournaments began today with the Peewee Western event in Brandon, MB; the Midget championship in London, ON and the Junior championship in Trois Riviéres, QC.
In Brandon, Abbotsford opened the tournament with a bang as they smashed out 13 hits en route to a 12-0 mercy-rule win over the Saskatoon Blue Jays. Jordan Loewen (Abbotsford, BC) was a force both on the mound and at the plate for Abbotsford as he went 2 for 2 including a 2 run homer in the 2nd inning and scored 4 runs. Loewen also pitched 4 innings giving up only 2 hits and striking out 10 batters.
In other action, Eric Clausen (Saskatoon, SK) was 3 for 4 with 4 RBI’s as the Saskatoon Braves beat Edmonton 15-4. Also, Jacob Melville (Spruce Grove, AB) had 3 hits and scored 2 runs as his Spruce Grove team defeated Regina 13-3 in a 5 inning (mercy rule) game.
Kevin Sengara (Vancouver, BC) had a 2 run homerun to lead Ridge Meadows, BC to a 12-6 victory over Mid West, MB.
The host London Badgers got off to a great start in the Midget championship as they hammered Manitoba by a score of 8-1. Taylor Carr (St. Thomas, ON) smacked a solo homer and Byron Reichstien (St. Thomas, ON) was 3 for 4 including a double and knocked in 2 runs to lead the London offence. Andrew Simonetti (Toronto, ON) picked up the win, pitching four 1-hit innings and striking out 3 batters.
In other action, Shawn Reid was 3 for 4 with an RBI as New Brunswick beat Saskatchewan 6-1. Québec 1 took care of Alberta 4-1. Also, BC hammered Manitoba by a score of 10-0 and Québec 2 beat Nova Scotia 4-3.
In Trois-Riviéres, the host club made a name for themselves by thumping Newfoundland, 12-1 in a 6 inning mercy-rule win. Jonathan Valdez (Montréal, QC) and Antoine Desilets (Trois-Riviéres, QC) each had 3 hits and 3 RBI with one of Valdez’ hits being a 3 run homerun in the 4th inning. Desilets was a homerun short of the cycle in the game. Marc-Andre Ronda pitched all 6 innings to pick up the victory for Trois-Riviéres and only gave up 1 hit.
Shaun Slemko (Courtice, ON) pitched a complete game as Ontario got by New Brunswick 5-2. Also, Anthony Frisen (Somerset, MB), Dale Fehr (Morden MB) and Neil Walton (Winnipeg, MB) combined to 1 hit Saskatchewan as Manitoba shut-out their provincial neighbours 7-0.
In their second game of the day Christian Chavez (Scarborough, ON) was 3 for 4 with an RBI and Kyle Taylor (Ajax, ON) picked up the win as Ontario downed Newfoundland 13-7.
Notes: All of the championships continue until Sunday August 23rd...Fans can follow all of the action live courtesy of Pointstreak: http://www.baseball.ca/eng_doc.cfm?DocID=145
