National Championships: Champions crowned at three events
Photo Credit: Morris Lamont
By Adam Morissette
Baseball Canada
They’re celebrating in White Rock, B.C., along with London and Mississauga in Ontario, as all three communities clinched Baseball Canada National Championship gold medals on Sunday.
It was a big day for Baseball Ontario as gold medal games at the 18U and 21U Men’s National Championships featured all-Ontario battles.
DQ® 13U National Western Championship
In Brandon, James Lawson didn’t allow a hit over four innings on the mound and Nick Liu belted a two-run homer in the first inning to lead White Rock, BC to a 7-3 win over St. Albert, Alta., and the gold medal at the DQ® 13U National Western Championship.
White Rock went undefeated over the four-day event and defended the title for their province that was won by Abbotsford in 2017.
In the bronze medal contest, Red Deer, Alta., got seven strikeouts from Spencer Claerhout and a 3-for-3 performance from Matthew Murray to beat host Brandon.
18U
In Fort McMurray, the London Badgers won their second consecutive 18U National Championship and fifth all-time with a 5-4 win over provincial-rival Etobicoke.
London built a 5-1 lead after four innings and held off a late charge from Etobicoke in the bottom of the seventh with Mason Newell recording the final two outs with the tying run on second base.
London received 6 1/3 innings on the mound from starter Zack Gazendam to pick up the win while John Geddes went 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored.
Emile Boies struck out nine over six innings of work and had an RBI double as Québec earned the bronze medal with an 11-1 win over Alberta. Frederick Archambault went 2-for-4 with a double and scored four runs while Nicholas Vachon drove in three for the winners.
Etobicoke qualified for the gold medal game with a 6-1 win over Québec in the first semi final of the day. Matt Komonen came within an out of a complete game but earned the win with six strikeouts.
In the other semi, Zane Livingston’s sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth stood as the winning run and Connor Ambrogio pitched a complete game shutout with nine strikeouts to lead London over Alberta, 1-0.
21 Men’s
Noah Wood Jolviet’s single to left field plated Johnny Liu with the winning run as Mississauga North scored a run in the sixth and two in the seventh to earn a come-from-behind, 6-5 win over Windsor to win gold.
Mississauga North stormed out to a 3-0 lead after three innings before Windsor scored two in the fourth and added four in the fifth to go up by three.
Lucas Parente led Mississauga North’s offence with a 3-for-3 game at the plate with a double and three RBI while TJ Schofield-Sam drove in two runs.
Colin Robinson had a home run in the loss for Windsor.
In the bronze medal game, Kyle Jewell had four hits and RBI while Nate Ronan pitched six solid innings on the mound to lead New Brunswick to a 7-2 win over Québec. The fourth place finish ends Québec’s four-year run as 21U Men’s gold medalists while the bronze medal is the first medal won by a New Brunswick club at the event since Saint John claimed silver in 2002.
Pitching was the name of the game in semi-final action with Windsor’s Dan Gore delivering a complete game shutout in a 5-0 win over Québec, while Mississauga North received home runs from Jake Ervin and Noah Wood Jolivet, and six scoreless from Chris Wyslobocki to defeat New Brunswick, 11-0.
Windsor opened the day with a 2-1 win over Oshawa in the first quarterfinal game while New Brunswick handed host St. Thomas a 7-3 defeat.