Major Mosquito Hawks Win 2012 Silver Bat Tournament!

 

 

On Friday night, the Hawks played under the Ray Twinney lights. In a sign of things to come, Keegan P. and Eric C. turned in a phenomenal pitching performance and combined for a no-hitter with 12 strikeouts to beat the Scarborough Stingers 5-0.

 

 

On Saturday, Newmarket started with the Pickering/Ajax Cubs and methodically built up a large lead that ended in an 11-1 mercy after 6 innings. Cody B., Connor C., and Juan C. combined for 8 strikeouts in a game where the Cubs could get nothing going. In the evening, the Hawks had some trouble with Whitby’s pitching and could only score 5 runs. But Newmarket’s pitching again responded to the challenge, and held Whitby to the same score and the game ended in a 5-5 tie. This gave the Hawks a 2-0-1 record after divisional play which was good enough for the third seeding as the Division A winner. This set up a classic semi-final confrontation for Sunday morning with the undefeated Mississauga North Tigers.

 

 

The only other time Mississauga and Newmarket played this year was in the Final of Mississauga’s tournament in early July. That ended in a 4-3 Mississauga win in 10 innings. But this time the Hawks were determined to take home the Silver Bat and jumped out to a 6-0 lead after 3 innings. The score could have been higher as the Hawks sent no less than five batters to the plate in every inning, but the Tigers didn’t give up and held the Hawks to six while mounting a come back that had the crowd of about 200 oscillating between wild cheering and dead silence. In the end, the pitching of Keegan P. and Aaron L. and the catching of Reid. held off the Tigers in a 6-5 nail-biter that went down to the last at bat. Aaron L. also scored what turned into the winning run on successive RBI base hits from Connor C. and Dylan G.

 

 

And so that set up the Final between Newmarket and the Brampton Royals who, while Newmarket was beating Mississauga, outscored Etobicoke 7-3 in the other semi-final.

 

 

Jason S. started the Final and fell behind 2-0 after the first inning. The scored stayed that way until the 3rd inning when Jack K. scored on a fielder’s choice RBI by Keegan P. Brampton immediately responded and scored two more and led 4-1 heading into the bottom of the 4th. Aaron L. led off with a liner to center and later scored on a hard hit to left field by Conner C. Then with two on and two out, Aiden A. cracked a liner into right field that scored two and tied the game. Aiden A. then tried to steal third and in the attempt to stop him, the ball was mishandled at 3rd base and he scored on the fielding error and the Hawks took the lead for the first time, 5-4. Brampton responded again with a run in their half of the 5th and tied it at five. Eric C. came into relieve Jason S. who reached his pitch count limit after five excellent innings. In the top of the 6th, Brampton took the lead 6-5 on an unearned run and so the Hawks were down to six outs and needing two runs to win the Silver Bat. In what was an almost impossible offensive explosion, the Hawks came through in the 6th with nine consecutive hits and ten in total. Juan C. drove in Cody B. for the first run that tied it, then with two on and two outs, Aiden A. smashed a shot to the right field fence. Aiden is fast and rounded the bases before Brampton could get the ball to the plate in time, scoring his 5th RBI of the game on a 3-run in-the-park home run to blow the game open. The Hawks were looking for insurance and Jack K. started off another streak of baserunners with a hard grounder over 2nd base. Reid L. and Brenden G., who were both 2 for 2 hitting, followed with two liners to the grass. Four more batters came to the plate and drove in 5 more runs. After six innings it was Newmarket 14 - Brampton 6 and the Hawks knew a celebration was at hand. They went on to win 14-7 to secure the Silver Bat for the first time in the 37 year history of the tournament.
Written By Mark Livingstone