McDowell leads Atlantic over Prairies in T12 round-robin finale

Atlantic pitcher Joshua Myers struck out two batters in his two innings of work in his team's 3-1 win over the Prairies in Tournament 12 action on Sunday night at the Rogers Centre. Photo Credit: Jennifer Redenbach

By Julia Kreuz

Canadian Baseball Network

TORONTO -- Micah McDowell had two hits, an RBI and scored a run to help Atlantic Maroon beat Prairies Purple 3-1 in the finale of the round-robin portion of Tournament 12 on Sunday night at Rogers Centre.

Winning pitcher Haden Dow (1-0) worked two shutout innings, yielding one walk and no hits.

Landy Peña went 1-for-3 and drove in the Prairies’ only run.

Atlantic (3-1) came into the final game of the day with a guaranteed spot in the semi-finals as the No. 2 seed in the tournament.

The Prairies team (0-3-1) had a “bullpen night” after being eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday following a 9-2 loss to the Futures squad.

“It was different, having to face guys that you don’t know,” Dow said after the game. “Seeing how your stuff compares to different hitters is an interesting experience.”

The Atlantic squad will have a chance to compete for a second consecutive T12 championship on Monday.

“It would be nice to get that title again, but at the end of the day it’s just another baseball game,” said Dow.

Noah Duckworth drove in the first run of the game in the top of the second inning to score Jackson Haight on a force out to give the Atlantic team a 1-0 lead.

McDowell tripled in the fifth to bring in Duckworth and extend Atlantic’s advantage to 2-0.

Mario Zabala sent a high fly ball to left centre field that bounced off the track and cleared the wall. McDowell scored Atlantic’s third run of the game and second of the inning on the ground-rule double.

The Prairies cut the lead to 3-1 on an RBI single by Landy Peña, the Purple’s first hit of the night, that scored Dillon Poschenrieder in the bottom of the sixth.

Relief pitcher Joshuan Lopez was a bright spot for the Prairies, with three strikeouts and no walks or hits allowed over two innings. Brandon Dauphinais (0-1) didn’t yield any hits, but surrendered one earned run and two walks as he was tagged with the loss.