TORONTO-Ontario Maroon booked a ticket into tomorrow’s second semi-final contest as they clinched first place in Group B with a 5-1 win over Futures Navy.
Maritimes suffered their first loss of the tournament this morning, but had already earned first place in Group A by virtue of their 3-0 start.
With two semi-final spots spoken for, two more are up for grabs as Tournament 12 round-robin action concludes tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow’s tilt between Alberta Red and Québec White at 10:30am will determine the second seed in Group B, while the second spot in Group A will not be decided until the conclusion of the BC/Québec (Blue) 8am match-up.
Here’s a look at today’s action:
Alberta (Red) 8 Futures (Navy) 0
Wylie Johnston belted a three-run homer in the top of the first inning and later added a two-run double as Alberta cruised to an 8-0 win over Futures Navy. Alberta starter Nolan Bumstead gave his team three solid innings on the mound striking out six, while Andrew Grieder and Jake Lanferman tossed two scoreless frames each to preserve the shutout. Fourteen year-old Adam Hall from the Futures belted his second triple of the tournament in the seventh inning.
Prairies (Brown) 5 Québec (White) 1
Brady Moxham fired four shutout innings and struck out four as the Prairies picked –up their first win of the tournament with a 5-1 victory over Québec White. Québec only managed one hit all game which came off Moxham as four other Prairie pitchers kept the Québec batters in check. Brother’s Derek and Chad Millar each went 1-for-3 and picked-up an RBI, while Miguel Letain scored a run and added an RBI. Québec’s Charles LeBlanc scored his team’s lone run when he walked, stole second and scored on a throwing error in the fifth.
BC (Orange) 2 Maritimes (Grey) 0
Bradley Smith and Jonathan Keltie combined on a two-hitter to give BC their first win of the tournament, while also handing the Maritimes their first loss of the event with a 2-0 win. Smith went four innings and struck out seven, while only giving up one hit. Keltie was equally impressive tossing three innings giving up one hit and two walks, while fanning two. Tosh Semlacher’s single in the fifth got by a diving Nolan Levy and rolled all the way to the wall to break the scoreless tie. BC would add another run in the sixth after Mitchell Robinson double and moved to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a subsequent wild pitch.
Québec (Blue) 6 Ontario (Black) 5
Québec scored six runs in the sixth inning on a base-hit, five walks and one Ontario error to erase a five-run deficit and went onto beat Ontario Black 6-5. Ontario had built a five run lead thanks to a run in the second, three in the fourth and one in the fifth to make it look as though they were in control of the game. Demi Orimoloye had an RBI single for Ontario and Blake Weston gave them a solid start with three scoreless innings on the mound and two strikeouts. Québec starter Will Tremblay was also impressive pitching for Québec as he worked three innings without giving up an earned run. Alexis Lavergne picked-up the save tossing two scoreless frames giving up only one hit and one walk, while adding one strikeout.
Ontario (Maroon) 5 Futures (Navy) 1
Ontario Maroon became the second team at Tournament 12 to earn a semi-final berth and also clinched first place in Group B after they defeated Futures Navy 5-1. The Futures had a tough time on defence committing six errors allowing Ontario to score five runs on only five hits. Tristan Clarke had a 2-for-3 day at the plate with two RBI’s, while four Ontario pitchers combined to limit the Futures to only three hits. Mitch Bigras started and worked three innings giving up one run and striking out two, while Brodie Harkness tossed two scoreless innings and Ryan Beckett and Dexter Coughtrey threw one scoreless frame each.
Ontario (Green) 10 Ontario (Black) 8
Ontario Green eventually prevailed over Ontario Black 10-8 in a game where both teams combined to walk 16 batters and throw seven wild pitches. Black led 8-2 after an inning and a half only to see Green score eight runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 10-8 lead. Austin Guzzo-Foliaro hit his second triple of the tournament as part of a two-hit day at the plate and drove in three runs, while Darren Shred went 2-for-4 with two RBI’s and scored two runs. Other top offensive performers included Andrew Yerzi who doubled and drove in three runs and Michael Moffatt who went 3-for-3 with three runs scored.
Standings after 3 days of competition:
Group A
*Maritimes (Grey) 3-1
Québec (Blue) 2-1
Ontario (Green) 2-2
BC (Orange) 1-2
Ontario (Black) 1-3
Group B
*Ontario (Maroon) 3-1
Alberta (Red) 2-1
Québec (White) 1-1-1
Futures (Navy) 1-2-1
Prairies (Brown) 1-3
*Clinched 1st place
Notes: After the final two round-robin games are played tomorrow morning and semi-final match-ups are set, action gets underway at 1pm with the first semi followed by the second semi-final game at 3:30pm. The championship contest is slated to begin at 6pm.
All games can be followed live courtesy of MLB Gameday. The live scoring link, schedule, rosters, and tournament rules are available at bluejays.com/t12
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