OTTAWA – Three more National Champions have been crowned at the Baseball Canada National Championships and some familiar names are at the top.
The Bantam Boys Championship in Vaughan, Ontario saw Ontario and Québec battled it out for the gold medal after both won one-run semi-final matchups; Ontario defeated Vaughan 5-4 and Québec edged New Brunswick 2-1.
Québec was holding on to a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning when Ontario would rally to score three runs on a bases loaded walk, a single and a fielder’s choice to take a 4-2 lead. Brad Bedford (Burlington, ON) drove in the go-ahead run with an RBI single.
From there Luke Sinclair (Dundas, ON) in his second inning of work made things interesting after giving a one out walk to Philippe Craig St-Louis (Gatineau, QC). After a stolen base and a throwing error on the catcher allowed St-Louis to move up to third with two outs, Sinclair got Simon Gravel (Terrebonne, QC) to strikeout looking and Ontario held on for the 4-2 win and the championship.
In the bronze medal game, a five run fourth inning for Vaughan was more than enough as they would go on to capture the bronze medal over New Brunswick by a score of 8-3. Shael Issenberg (Vaughan, ON) went 2-for-3 with a double and three RBI for the bronze medal winners.
At the Bantam Girls Championship in Toronto, It was Québec who came out on top after breaking a 5-5 tie in the sixth inning with a pair of runs and held on to win the gold by a score of 7-5.
Gabrielle Perreault (St-Nicholas, QC) led off the sixth with a double, and after a Cynthia Renaud (Gatineau, QC) single, she would score on a Stéphanie Sage (Coaticook, QC) RBI single for the go-ahead run. Renaud scored the insurance run on a Catherine Parenteau St-Antoine (Le Gardeur, QC) ground out.
Sabrina Beauvais (Montréal-Est, QC) got the final out in the seventh after Parenteau St-Antoine pitched 6 2/3 innings. She allowed three runs; none were earned, on four hits and two walks while striking out seven.
In the bronze medal game, trailing 8-4 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Saskatchewan would put together a seven run inning and would hold on to defeat Ontario 11-10 to bring home the bronze.
Karli Reeve (Yorkton, SK) led the way again offensively for Saskatchewan as she would go 3-for-4 with a double and five RBI, giving her a total of 16 RBI for the tournament. She also pitched the complete game to earn the win.
And at the Peewee Western Championship in Red Deer, Alberta, after handing the two British Columbia teams their first losses of the tournament at the most opportune time, it was Saskatoon and Sherwood Park who competed for gold. In a hard fought contest, Saskatoon turned out to be too much as they would capture the inaugural Baseball Canada Peewee Western Championship with a 13-8 victory.
The Senior Men’s Championship in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia will be decided on Monday as Ontario, Québec, Alberta and Newfoundland will go for gold. To follow the 2009 Baseball Canada National Championships live, click on the following link: http://www.baseball.ca/eng_doc.cfm?DocID=145
