Windsor Selects win 7th junior elims in 10 years

By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
There were a couple of one-run games.

And the Windsor Selects needed a double-figure offensive outburst in the final.

Yet, in the end plenty of pitching and truckloads of line drives allowed the Selects to beat the St. Thomas Tomcats 14-10 and run the table at the Baseball Ontario junior eliminations held at historic Kinsmen Stadium in Oshawa.

Matt Krutsch worked a scoreless final 1 2/3 innings for the win, C Matt Deneau and SS Andrew Wasyluk each knocked in four runs thanks to three hits apiece. 

For a good team to win the best players have to deliver at the most important time ... and so it was for Windsor: Krutsch was named pitcher of the tournament, Waslyluk top hitter of the tourney and Deneau the MVP. The Selects are off to the Baseball Canada junior nationals in Regina, Aug. 18-22. 

Patrick Cuffaro started the most important game of the year working 1 2/3 innings allowing four runs on five hits and three walks. Nathan Bissett was next pitching 1 1/3 innings allowing two earned runs on two hits, two walks and a hit batter. Next in line on a Johnny Wholestaff day was Jake Radjenovich, who pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two runs on three hits and a walk. 

Then Joshua Neposlan took over in the and was touched for two runs in 1 1/3 innings on two hits, a walk and a hit batter as he picked up the win.

Krutsch did not allow a hit fannning a pair. RF Lee Kucera had two hits while CF Noah Renad had a pair of hits.

This is the seventh trip to the nationals in the previous 10 years for the Selects, who were Canadian champs in 2007, captured silver in 2009, 2011 and 2012 and won bronze in 2008 and 2014. Coach Al Bernacchi coached the team with Andy Papp.  

Windsor needed extras to edge the Newmarket Hawks 3-2 in nine innings in the semi-final.

Windsor gave up a in top of ninth and then in bottom half Renaud was hit by a pitch. Deneau singled on a line drive to centre. After a Newmarket pitching change, with 3B Mitch Hudvanger up Bernacchi gave him one strike to swing away. Hudvanger swung thru strike one, then was asked to bunt and dropped a beauty down third base line. It couldn’t have been any better if he had rolled it out of his hand.

The pitcher fielded the ball turned and made an unbalanced throw into the right field corner, scoring both Renaud and Deneau in walk off fashion. 

Rex Romero pitched 2 2/3 scoreless for the win allowing three hits, striking out four. He took over for Blake Falkner who allowed two runs -- one earned -- on three hits and two walks.

Hudvanger had three hits and knocked in two runs while 2B Kyle Gagnon, LF Jeremy Orton and Deneau each had a pair of hits. 

The Selects opened with a tough one ... a 2-1 win over the Scarborough Stingers at Neilson Park as Renaud doubled hom Windsor’s two runs in the seventh. Romero pitched seven innings for the complete-game win allowing one run on four hits and two walks, while fanning four.

Windsor moved to 2-0 with an 11-5 triumph against the Pickering Cubs at Neilson. 1B Colin Robinson had four hits and knocked in five. Jack Zimmerman pitched a complete game as well allowing three runs on nine hits, as he whiffed eight. RF Lee Kucera and Deneau provided support for Zimmerman: Deneau with three hits and two RBIs, Kucera with two hits and two RBIs.

It was all Krutsch in the next one as he pitched a five-inning no hitter to blank St. Thomas 14-0. Krutsch walked four and fanned five. DH Beau Hunter had a pair of hits and three RBIs while Gagnon had one hit and three RBIs. Deneau and Hudvanger had two hits and two RBIs apiece. 

Windsor’s offence averaged nearly 8.5 runs a game, reaching double digits four times. It was a well-rounded attack as pitchers allowed nine runs in the first six games before the slugfest.

Newmarket’s Darcy Moore, league MVP last year, hit two home runs over the deep left field wall.

A long-time observer, who was there before the plate was moved foreward in the late 1970s thought it was the first time he had ever seen a right-handed hitter knock one over the wall to left. 

There was of course the 1978 debate between the Ottawa-Nepean Canadians first baseman and his manager on  whether the walls were in the same situation. The first baseman argued the Kinsmen Stadium walls -- think Medieval castle thick -- had been moved in rather than the 18-inch plate being moved out. It was an Oshawa-Kemptville debate which did not end well.

Not as well as Windsor’s weekend in Oshawa where the Selects are best in the province again ... 7-for-10. Can you say dynasty?