Futures and Prairies play to scoreless tie in Game 3 pitchers duel
Tanner Bercier delivers a pitch for Prairies Purple. Photo Credit: Nick Ashbourne
By: Daniel McKenzie
Canadian Baseball Network
It was a good-old-fashioned pitchers duel at Tournament 12 on Friday afternoon. Well, a pitching duel, to be more accurate, as six young arms carried Futures Navy and Prairies Purple to a 0-0 nail-biter in the third game of this year’s tournament at Rogers Centre.
Purple starter Carson Campbell tossed three strong innings, walking two and striking out seven. Tanner Bercier followed with three shutout innings and three strikeouts of his own. The team had a no-hitter going until the top of the seventh when Brody Frerichs gave up a single.
Boxscore: Prairies Purple 0 Futures Navy 0
Prairies coach Greg Brons praised his pitchers but also thinks the T12 rules, which start each count at 1-1 in order to speed up the game, might have as much to do with the scoreless draw as the pitching.
“You know, it’s different with that 1-1 count. Guys have a different mentality where they want to look for more pitches where I think you just gotta get ready to hit and hunt for that fastball early,” Brons said. “You let that fastball go by and then you’re gonna be seeing a lot of breaking stuff. We got into holes and I think they did a pretty good job of executing their pitches.”
The first few innings went by in a flash as Navy pitchers weren’t about to be outdone.
Starter Eric Cerantola battled some control issues during his three innings, walking three, but managed to get himself out of a number of jams finishing with six strikeouts. Carter Seabrooke then pitched three hitless innings, striking out five and Noah Paterson shut Purple down in the seventh, despite walking a batter.
Navy looked to pull ahead in the top of the sixth inning, but a scary scene overshadowed their would-be lead.
With substitute batter Ian Jordan on first base after being hit by a pitch, catcher Ryan Faragher drilled a frozen rope into the left-centre gap. The ball went all the way to the wall as Jordan rounded the bases.
Attention quickly turned back to home plate though, as Faragher was down on his hands and knees, having buckled after the swing. He attempted to crawl up the first base line before giving in to the pain.
Purple fielders threw the ball in and Faragher was called out at first, negating the potential go-ahead run and ending the inning.
Medical staff attended him while players and coaches gathered around the 16-year-old who plays his league ball with the Great Lake Canadians. After a lengthy delay, Faragher made his way to the dugout under his own strength, albeit gingerly.
After the game, he was scene sitting in the dugout tunnel with his right leg wrapped heavily around the knee area, but Navy coach Mike Lumley sounded fairly positive despite how things looked.
“Well, he walked off, which was a great sign,” Lumley said. “They said there’s no major damage, might just have to take a little time off.”
Navy is the youngest team in the tournament, made up of mostly 16-year-olds from across Ontario, with a few B.C natives mixed in.
Coach Lumley thinks they looked their age a bit in this one, but expects them to loosen up as the weekend rolls on.
“(They were) a little nervous. I mean, this is a tough arena for them right?” he said. “We’re at Rogers Centre and scouts everywhere and for some of them that’s their first shot at it, so I think they think their whole life’s on the line.”
Lumley said the 1-1 counts messed them up a bit too, but saw his hitters getting better as the game wore on.
“I think they’re fine…I kind of look at them over the course of the week and you’ll start to see them hit a little better,” he said. “Defence is there, pitching’s there, so (we) looked pretty good.”
Purple threatened in the bottom of the sixth, loading the bases with only one out. But Seabrooke struck out Purple first-baseman Ryan Gaab and left-fielder Darnell Wyke to end the inning. Neither team threatened in the seventh.
Both coaches said they plan to tell their players to be more aggressive at the plate in their next game and jump on early fastballs as soon as they see them.
Navy will be in action again on Friday in the day's finale against Quebec Blue, while Purple will next play on Saturday afternoon, also against Quebec.