OTTAWA – Thunderstorm warnings in southern Ontario has caused delays at the Bantam Boys Championship in Vaughan, Ontario. Despite possible hurricane forecasts in the Nova Scotia region, clear skies have prevailed in Dartmouth for the Senior Men’s Championship.
In Dartmouth, the host team held a 2-0 lead over Québec in the top of the seventh, but the team from la belle province scored three runs on one swing. With one out and two men on, Jean-Philippe Lapointe (Laval, QC) hit a three-run blast and on one swing of the bat, Québec took a 3-2 lead.
Patrice Plante (Victoriaville, QC) came in to pitch the bottom of the seventh to preserve the lead, but got off to a bit of a rocky start when he walk the leadoff hitter Matt Denny (Florence, NS) and put the tying run on base. But Plante retired the next three batters and got the save in the Québec victory.
In other action, Gerald Butt (St. John’s, NL) hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning and that was it for the offence as Newfoundland edged British Columbia in a 1-0 pitcher’s duel.
Bobby Kent (St. John’s, NL) threw a complete game shutout, allowing five hits and five walks with five strikeouts for the win. Andrew Brock (Burnaby, BC) took the tough loss, allowing one run on seven hits in six innings of work.
Also, Alberta earned a mercy rule win by a score of 16-4 over Nova Scotia.
In Vaughan, Manitoba came back from a 7-0 deficit against British Columbia to make it 7-6 in the top of the seventh, scoring three in the sixth and three in the seventh, but that’s as close as they would get as B.C. was able to hold on for the one-run victory.
Chris Shaw (Winnipeg, MB) led the attempted comeback for Manitoba, going 3-for-4 with a triple and a two-run double. Byron Prasad (Vancouver, BC) guided the B.C. offence with a 2-for-4 effort with a home run, double and four RBI.
That would be it though in Vaughan rain delays postponed the remainder of the day’s action. Action will resume tomorrow.
Also tomorrow, the Bantam Girls Championship in Toronto, Ontario and the Peewee Western Championship in Red Deer, Alberta will get underway
To follow the 2009 Baseball Canada National Championships live, click on the following link: http://www.baseball.ca/eng_doc.cfm?DocID=145
