Junior National Championship What a difference a year can make. After losing a heartbreaking semi-final game and winning Bronze one year ago, Québec came out and took care of business with a thrilling victory over Ontario to take home the Junior National Championship. Gold Medal Game Québec 6 Ontario (1) 4 After a third place finish one year earlier, Québec took home the Gold medal prize this year with a dramatic 6-4 extra inning win over Ontario. It was sweet victory for Québec, who were defeated 1-0 in last year’s tournament semi-final by an Ontario based team from Mississauga. Ontario started off the game strong, getting out to a 3-0 lead heading into the fourth inning, but the 2012 version of Québec took advantage of five Ontario errors which allowed Québec to keep some momentum that they maybe shouldn’t have had. The game went back and forth from then on until David Champagne (Québec, QC) drove in what would turn out to be the winning run with a RBI single. Battling some control issues throughout the game, Guillaume Blanchette (St-Constant, QC) battled through the adversity and pitched all eight innings to help his team win a national championship. Bronze Medal Game Trois-Rivières 9 Nova Scotia 3 Coming off a tough loss only an hour earlier, the hosts from Trois-Rivières made sure to still come home with a medal as they defeated Nova Scotia. They spread the offense out smoothly by scoring three runs in an inning three separate times to earn the win. Both Raphaël Gladu (Trois-Rivieres, QC) and Miguel Comtois (Le Gardeur, QC) led the offensive attack with three RBI each. Kolby Turple (Kennetcook, NS) had three hits in the loss. Semi-final #1 Ontario (1) 8 Nova Scotia 0 Ryan Zimmer (London, ON) pitched six innings of shutout baseball and Larry Balkwill (Chatham, ON) drove in three runs to lead Ontario past Nova Scotia and into the final. Balkwill hit his tournament leading fourth home run in the sixth inning to solidify the win. Semi-final #2 Québec 6 Trois-Rivières 4 Québec came out on top in the battle of both Québec teams and booked their ticket into the final. They made sure not to waste any time as they scored three runs in first inning to take the early lead. Throughout the game they also flexed their muscle power as Cédric Vallières (Roxton Pond, QC) and Joël Sébastien (Gatineau, QC) both hit home runs. Placement Games BC 7 Saskatchewan 2 BC rushed out to an early 3-0 lead and never looked back to hang on to the win. Dawson Newman (Panchland, BC) threw a complete game gem allowing only one hit and fanning a remarkable 14 batters. New Brunswick 12 Newfoundland and Labrador 2 New Brunswick scored 12 runs on 12 hits to defeat Newfoundland and Labrador. Mike Washburn (Fredericton, NB) led the way offensively with two hits and four RBI and finished the tournament with nine in total. Manitoba 6 Ontario (2) 0 Drew Haight (Cartwright, MB) and Dustin Donald (Rossendale, MB) had two RBI each to lead Manitoba to the shutout victory over Ontario. Their defense was sharp as well as they stranded a total of nine Ontario baserunners.
