June 26, 2022

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

The name of the game is usually pitching.

And the name of the pitcher doing most of the work for the Mississauga Majors was right-hander Aiden Luther.

Luther had two wins and a save as the Majors won the consolation title of the Battle of the Falls in Niagara N.Y. The Majors dropped the opener and then coach Mike Irving’s team won five straight.

Round-robin opener

Buffalo Elite 10, Majors 1 (0-1)

NIAGARA, NY - What in the name of Martin L. Dobkin was happening? The tourney began with Buffalo Elite scoring seven times thanks to three walks, a ball lost in the sun in right field and five other hits at Town of Niagara Veterans’ Memorial Park.

Daniel Lucas hit a solo homer to right field in the fifth, while other Majors hits went to Nolan Scicluna, Jake Heinbuch and Markus Smoljanovic.

Lucas pitched 4 2/3 innings and took the loss, while Yenna Robson worked the final 2 1/3 innings allowing one earned run.

Round-robin Game II

Majors 10 (1-1), Hamburg Black 5

SANBORN, NY _ Aidan Luther had an 85-pitch outing for the win at Niagara County Community College. He worked five innings, allowing four runs on six hits and five walks, while striking out four. Liam Nash finished up allowing zero earned runs.

Luke Heinbuch led the way for the Majors with a pair of doubles and knocking in two runs. Markus Smoljanovic doubled and singled, driving in a run, while Nolan Scicluna also doubled to plate a pair.

(Action) Jackson Irving singled in two runs, while Alex Pieper added two hits and drove in a run. Lucas Marciello had two hits, Jake Heinbuch had an RBI single, Elijah Morales singled and Chad Samaroo drove in a run.

Buffalo Elite went on to win the 20-team tournament.

Hall of Fame guest: Coach Don Gilbert, former head coach of the undefeated University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, who was inducted into the Buffalo Hall of Fame along with Bills running back Thurman Thomas and Sabres netminder Dominik Hasek.

Round-robin Game III

Majors 7 (2-1), Nickel City 5

CAMBRIA, NY - Down 4-3 in the sixth, the Majors scored three to take the lead on the way to their second win in round-robin play at Cambria Town park.

Jake Heinbuch led off with a walk, advanced on an Alex Pieper single and both scored on Chad Samaroo’s double. Samaroo scored on a dropped third strike.

Luther needed only seven pitches for a 1-2-3 seventh to save the win for Lucas Marciello, who pitched two innings allowing one run. Pieper started and pitched four innings allowing one earned run.

Daniel Lucas doubled in two runs, while Jackson Irving singled and knocked in a run,

Nolan Scicluna and Elijah Morales each singled, as Marciello drove in a run.

Quarter-finals

Majors 16U 5 (3-1) WNY Prospects-Columbia 15U 1

LOCKPORT, NY - Indoor facility owners were looking for strike-throwing machines as reliable as Yenna Robson. After a 21-pitch warm-up -- 20 strikes -- Robson pitched a complete-game, seven-inning 5-1 win over the Western New York Prospects-Columbia at Outwater Park.

And during the game Yenna threw 57 pitches by the official counter -- 54 by another, older counter. TO-mat-toe. TOE-may-TO. Not much of a difference. Le Meme chose. Adding them up ... 45 strikes (84.2%) .... and not once did Yenna go over 10 pitches per inning. In all, Yenna threw first-pitch strikes to 22 of 27 hitters faced, allowing one run.

Up 1-0 in the fifth, the Majors scored four times. Elijah Morales doubled and one out later Markus Smoljanovic walked. Chad Samaroo, who also singled, hit a scoring fly ball. Jackson Irving, who had singled earlier, doubled home a run and Jake Heinbuch singled in a run.

The Majors also scored in the second when Daniel Lucas singled, stole second, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a Morales single. Lucas also had a second hit, while Liam Nash and Quinn Murray also had hits.

Hall of Fame Presentation: Robson presented head coach and Hall of Famer Don Gilbert with a signed ball from the Majors. Robson threw a strike with her speech as well. Gilbert, former head coach of the undefeated Ottawa Gee-Gees graduated nine players to the CFL, including five to the Hall of Fame and two to the NFL and one to Queen’s Park (Neil Lumsden). Gilbert was inducted into the Buffalo Hall of Fame along with Bills running back Thurman Thomas and Sabres netminder Dominik Hasek.

Semi-finals

Majors 16U 8 (4-1), Maroon & White Bull Dogs 4

LOCKPORT, NY - Elijah Morales put down all the right fingers for Yenna Robson’s dominant performance in the quarter finals at Outwater Park.

And in the semis, Morales took to the mound. He took to it the way a duck takes to water. Morales allowed four runs -- two earned -- on five hits and two walks, while striking out a pair in his 98-pitch outing (61 strikes), throwing first-pitch strikes on 22 of 30 hitters.

In support of Morales was Lucas Marciello, bad back and all, went 3-for-4 with a double and four RBIs. Markus Smoljanovic also doubled to drive in a pair of runs. Daniel Lucas was 2-for-2 and knocked in a run.

Luke Heinbuch singled and drove in a run, while Chad Samaroo, Jackson Irving, Jake Heinbuch and Alex Pieper also had hits.

Aidan Luther always wasn’t as tall as he is now — in 2014, he tagged along with his older brother, Brendan Luther, as the Mississauga Southwest Twins played the Etobicoke Rangers at Queensway Park. Aidan wound up having his picture taken with Etobicoke grad and former National League MVP winner Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds.

Final

Majors 16U 13 (5-1) Niagara Thunderwolves 9

CAMBRIA, NY _ Working on 30 hours rest, Aiden Luther pitched a gutty, complete game performance to make sure his teammates wound up with medals around their necks.

It wasn’t pretty -- eight hits, seven walks -- but he went start to finish as the Majors scored a 13-9 over the Thunderwolves. There is always a saying about Sunday games in tournaments, when no one has any fresh arms ... “just hope you are on the right end of the 12-11 score.”

The Thunderwolves scored once in the first, the Majors had four in the bottom half, the Thunderwolves scored five in the top of the second and the Majors responded with eight for a 12-6. And it stayed that way until the bottom of the sixth.

Niagara scored three in the ninth off Luther and with a man on, centre fielder Chad Samaroo made a Willie Mays over his left shoulder. Had that ball dropped it would have meant that the tying run was in the on-deck circle.

The players rushed the field in celebration. Luther was even seen raising his arm. Pop Gary was assigned brushing Aiden’s hair duties for the next two days after his 13 innings of work.

Samaroo started things, leading off with a grounder between the third baseman’s legs. Yet rather than continue running up the line in right, he headed for second and beat the throw with an aggressive slide.

Jake Heinbuch singled home Samaroo, Luke Heinbuch was hit by a pitch, Alex Pieper hit an RBI single and Lucas Marciello did the same.

The second inning saw Markus Smoljanovic walk, steal second advance to third on Quinn Murray’s single and scored on a balk. With two out the hits kept on coming: Jake and Luke Heinbuch each singled, Pieper tripled, Lucas was hit by a pitch, Marciello walked, Morales singled and Smoljanovic -- the 11th hitter of the inning -- singled.

Peiper tripled, singled and drove in three, while Jake Heinbuch had two hits and two RBIs.

Jackson Irving, Marciello, Morales each singled and knocked in a run, as Luke Heinbuch and his best pal Murray each singled.

In the field, Smoljanovic made a diving play in right and doubled the runner off first, Peiper threw to Luther covering first for a nifty out, Luke Heinbuch and Irving turned a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play.