By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network

It is not the same as the Boston Red Sox playing the New York Yankees.

Nor is it like the San Francisco Giants playing the Los Angeles Dodgers in a September series.

It’s one part family picnic, one part get together for old pals and one part pick-up game which would have been played at the corner park until the street lights come on.

And oh yeah, one other thing; it is ALL about needling and it is ALL about bragging rights.

The game is like when Ohio State beats up Michigan ... except that in a few days some players will be sharing planes, vans and dugouts together.

Such is life when Ontario’s best high schoolers square off in the heated rivalry as Ontario Green meets Ontario Black, which was a 4-1 winner before the largest crowd of the day at the Rogers Centre in Tournament 12 play. 

A total of 69 games have been played to date in the four-year history of the event and Friday was only the fourth installment of Ontario Green vs. Ontario Black and the series now stands at 1-1-2 with enough shots, texts and one-liners delivered to fill the 200 level.

The two teams tied 8-8 in 2015 and 0-0 last year, before Ontario Green beat Ontario Black 4-2 in a second meeting of the 2016 tournament. There were 10 teams involved in the inaugural T12 -- three from Ontario -- and two the next three years.

The dominant performance in this one was Ontario Green starter Landon Leach (Pickering, Toronto Mets) who lit up the radar gun at 92 MPH. OF Rashad Collymore (Mississauga) was hit by a pitch and reached third on a Noah Naylor (Mississauga, Ontario Blue Jays) single to left. Collymore scored on a wild pitch and SS Adam Hall (London, Great Lake Canadians) bounced out to make it 2-0. Leach pitched four innings allowing one earned run on two hits and two hit batters, while fanning six.
    
Trei Cruz (Toronto, Marucci Houston) walked, stole second and scored on a OF Noah Myers (Wyoming, Great Lake Canadians) single with Cruz sliding home ahead of a strong throw from OF Alex Jones (Bowmanville, Ontario Blue Jays).

Hall singled with one out in the sixth stole second and after a walk both INF Daniel Carinci (Ajax, Toronto Mets) and David Mendham (Dorchester, Ont. Ontario Nationals) hit run-scoring singles.

Ontario Green threatened in the seventh when OF Kurt Dawkins (Ajax) led off with a single against RHP Tyler Whalen (Hamilton, Great Lakes Canadians) and then, OF Cooper Davis (Mississauga) sorched a liner to right.

“I hit the ball, put my head down and thought I was headed for third,” Davis said after, “I looked up in time to see him make the catch.” Plouffe then doubled Dawkins off third.

About then he noticed a difference in what was being said from the peanut gallery behind him. Both teams shared the one bullpen (no sense messing up two bullpen mounds) so you had Great Lakes Canadians, Ontario Blue Jays and Toronto Mets sitting side by each a summer teammate -- yet he was wearing a different colored T12 jersey.

Ontario vs. Ontario crosses many borders and as soon as the T12 rosters come out players on respective teams are talking about Green-Black matchup. Players in the third base and first base dugouts are or have been teammates with the Canadian Junior National Team, or on the province’s elite teams, attend the same high school or have played on the same OBA clubs.

“Harley Gollert -- we go to St. Mike’s together -- and Garner Spoljaric (both with the Green machine) were calling me slow poke,” said Plouffe, “then I made the catch and they were saying ‘you’re my hero,’ along with ‘nice grab.’ I gave them the thumbs up.”

And the bullpen gave a similar sign ... a one finger sign without the indicator.

Plouffe said he enjoyed the finish with his Toronto Mets teammate Dondrae Bremner (Whitby) on the Green team. Such was life amongst the Mets, who had six players on the two teams: RHP Hayden Malenfant (Whitby), INF Leo Markotic (Georgetown), Carinci and Plouffe with Ontario Black; Mitch Osborne (Whitby), Bremner and Leach with Ontario Green. 

There were 17 Great Lake Canadians in uniform: OF Lucas Parente (Burlington), RHP Griffin Hassal (Newmarket), RHP Mitchell Stemerdink (Kitchener), INF Kian Bukala (London), OF Tyrell Hebert (Hamilton), RHP Tyler Whalen (Hamilton) and Hall with Ontario Black; INF Tye Imeson (London), RHP Garner Spoljaric (Lisle), RHP Jonathan Burkhart (Kitchener), RHP Jake English (London), C Brett Corbeth (London), RHP Dallas Hunter (Simcoe), RHP Jordan Marks (Brights Grove), RHP Corben Peters (Ottawa), Jameson Hart (Sarnia) and Myers with Ontario Green. 

Whalen, a Great Lake Canadian who came on for the save said there was a partition in the bullpen separating the two teams. But that didn’t stop the teasing and the chirping: “looks like you guys are going to lose.”
 
There were 12 Ontario Blue Jays on the two teams: RHP Noah Skirrow (Stoney Creek), 1B Malik Williams (Toronto), Jones, Naylor and Collymore with Ontario Black; LHP Harley Gollert (Toronto), C Reese O’Farrell (Burlington), INF Jake Ervin (Mississauga), RHP Nathan Holmes (Mississuga), INF Ryan Kula (Toronto) Dawkins and Davis with Ontario Green.

“It’s great competition,” Kula said, as he explained there was pre-game exchanges of a needling nature in the batting cage with both his Ontario Blue Jays teammates Naylor and Williams. “This loss leaves a sour taste in my mouth."

Davis said players had been looking forward to this game and sizing up who would win since the day that the rosters came out. 

“We’re all so close on our own team or the Junior National Team, that’s why so many of us were laughing when Leach hit Hall with a pitch accidentally,” Davis said. 

There were two Ontario Terriers: RHP Ben Abram (Georgetown) and INF Jacob Martins (Richmond Hill) in the game.

The others in the game were RHP Cameron Dyck (Oakville, Etobicoke Rangers), LHP Adam Tulloch (Collingwood/MVP Banditos) and Mendham. 

And the Cruz brothers ... the Toronto-born sons of former Blue Jays outfielder Jose Cruz: OF Antonio with the Black team and Trei, who made a fine play at second, with the Green.

“It reminds me of Rice playing the Texas Longhorns,” said Antonio with a twinkle in his eye.

Memories: Poppi Cruz stood and showed Antonio where he used to hit em as a Blue Jay: 122 homers in 698 games as a Jay over six years. 

“In 2000 I led off against David Cone of the Yankees and hit a home run to right field, three innings later another one,” Cruz remembered “and the next night I was leading off against Orlando (El Duque) Hernandez to right field.”

His first homer with the Jays was against Cleveland Indians Albie Lopez and Sandy Alomar, Jr. was catching. “Sandy said to me ‘we aren’t throwing you a 2-0 fastball anymore,” Cruz recalled.

Sandy Alomar, Hall of Fame father of Robbie and Sandy Alomar, says Antonio reminds looks a little like his grandpa Jose (Cheo) Cruz.

The longest tape measure blows Cruz ever saw at the SkyDome was Barry Bonds during batting practice: above the Jumbotron and off the hotel window atop the right field seats. “Next day everyone came out to watch him hit.”
  
One from the coast: Brett Lawrie was a tad petulant playing for the Langley Blaze. One day in a lopsided romp over the Northshore Twins he tossed the bat -- not to his own first base dugout at McLeod Athletic Park in Langley -- but to the visiting dugout.

Twins coach John Haar beat the bat boy to the lumber, took it around the corner of the dugout, stepped on the bat snapping it in two and handed the two pieces of the bat to Lawrie when he crossed the plate.

Roll call I: The Jays, who are being good corporate citizens hosting this event, have 10 scouts working the tournament, while the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks have three scouts each. The Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers each have two scouts here. Ten other teams have one scout with only the Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals. So 46 scouts were on hand with a total of 58 scouting packages picked up.       

Roll call II: Universities on hand ... Albany, Bryan, Eastern Kentucky, Hawaii, University of Miami, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Niagara, Northern Kentucky, Purdue, St. John’s, Utah and Washington.

Four-year schools: University of British Columbia, Davenport, Fraser Valley. 

Two-year schools: Indian Hills Community College, Iowa Western Community College, Southeastern Community College.   

Elsewhere: Alexis Brudnicki ... Arms Shine

Alexis Brudnicki ... Tournament 12 thriving in 4th year