By: Tyler King

Canadian Baseball Network

NASHVILLE - Down 4-3 to the Kalamazoo Maroons in the seventh inning of the Sandlott World Championship semi-finals, it was almost a forgone conclusion that the Ontario Terriers 18-U team would stage one more dramatic rally.

Just a day earlier they pulled off late-inning heroics in back-to-back elimination games - including a walk-off win - to become one of four teams (out of a field of 22) to make it to Sunday. 

So with two on, one out, and the tournament’s two hottest hitters on deck, you couldn’t blame the Terriers dugout for anticipating yet another pile-up at home plate.

Outfielder Jack Omstead, who hit an insane .471 (8-for-17) for the week, had a chance for his sixth RBI of the tournament. Instead, however, he struck out for only the second time in six games.

But the noise coming from the Terriers dugout - most noticeably from the ever upbeat pitcher Matt Correia - never waned as infielder Jacob Martins stepped into the box, the team down to their final out.

Martins had already recorded seven hits in the tournament, including a double, home run, and a walk-off RBI a day earlier, which perhaps made him the only hitter in Nashville as confident as Omstead.

But after seemingly using up all their lifelines the previous day, the Terriers were unable to cash that last run sitting out there on third, the one that would have taken them to the promised land ...

Martins struck out and the team could do nothing but board the bus for the long, quiet ride back to Toronto, all the while knowing they were just one base hit and one more win away from winning it all.

“What more do you want?” coach Scott Van De Valk said after the game. “Tying run in scoring position with less than two outs, the winning run in scoring position... Their pitcher did a good job.”

However Van De Valk was quick to glance at the scoreboard and add, “But you should win the game with 13 hits.”

No, that’s not a typo. The Terriers out hit the Maroons 13-4, as pitcher Alex Wall threw his second quality start of the tournament and one that should have been good enough to get the win. He had six strikeouts and only three walks in his complete game performance.

One more timely hit and Wall’s story would be much different, although it’s difficult to knock the offence on a day where seven of the Terriers ten starters had hits, including three more from Omstead and two from Martins. 

They also got a two-run home run in the fifth off the bat of Middle State Tennessee University commit Elliott Curtis, which cut the Terriers deficit to one and got them right back in the game.

Curtis hit just one home run last year but already had 18 in 2016 prior to this trip south of the border. His 19th dinger - a line drive over the left field wall - came in his third at-bat after striking out twice against the big Kalamazoo left-handed starter.

But if there’s one thing that opposing pitcher’s should have taken note of this week, it’s you can’t keep attacking Curtis the same way ...

Four times in the tournament opposing starters got him out the first two times through the Terriers lineup. And four times Curtis ripped a base hit in his third at-bat. 

Curtis’s ability to think through a game and make adjustments was self-evident. Speaking with him after Friday’s round-robin game against the East Cobb Astros, he could seemingly recall every pitch that was thrown at him.

“My first two at-bats I was getting out front,” Curtis said after he went 1-for-3 in Friday’s game. “He probably picked up on that and kept throwing me changeups so I grounded out. But then the last time up I started to sit back a little bit more and open up my eyes gap-to-gap. Then I went with the fastball he gave me outside.”

Although he did have the home run and five hits on the week, the ultra-competitive Curtis probably didn’t see that as any consolation for the semi finals loss. 

However, despite the end result Curtis (and the entire Terriers team) will have no shortage of great games and moments to reflect on:

Like Saturday’s gutsy four-inning do-or-die performance from big right hander Ben Abram, who joined the Nashville trip having just pitched for the Junior National Team in Cuba.

Or there was pitcher Jack Anderson’s two complete-game wins - one being a four-inning no-hit mercy in the second game of the tournament. Anderson had 14 strikeouts in his 11 total innings, consistently dominating hitters with his devastating changeup.

Catcher and Niagara University commit Joe Tevlin caught the lefty both times and knows how effective that pitch can be.

“[Anderson’s] changeup is just filthy,” Tevlin said. “Find a way to get to two strikes and throw the changeup and he can almost always get it by the guy ... It’s hard to read out of the hand and it’s probably got more movement on it than any changeup I’ve ever caught.”

(As an aside, when Anderson was asked if he could truly call his four-inning game a “no-hitter”, he just glanced at the scoreboard, shrugged his shoulders and said, “Look ... No hits.”)

But as impressive as Anderson was, who could forget the ‘selfless game of the century’ by outfielder Ryan Giberson in the tournament quarter finals.

Giberson was hit by a pitch all three times he stepped to the plate against the Kentucky Colonels, and his bodily sacrifice finally paid off with two outs in the sixth when, down by two, he reached base after being hit and promptly scored to pull the Terriers within one.

Then there was Willie Hotta’s epic eight-pitch battle four batters later - after first baseman Dreyden Sloat had tied the game with a clutch two-out double. Hotta fouled off three tough two-strike pitches before ripping what would become the game winning RBI single.

No ... there would be no shortage of stories and dramatics for the Ontario Terriers coming out of Nashville. 

Sure, they wish they could have added one more storyline, the one that ends with a bunch of gold medals around their necks. 

But with the way everything played out, the Terriers players will likely have no problem sleeping easy ... given a day or two of course.

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