Mosquito OBA Tournament Wrap-up, News, Mosquito OBA, Baseball, 2017 (Alvinston Minor Ball)

This Team is part of the 2017 season, which is not set as the current season.
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Sep 04, 2017 | tkelly | 1157 views
Mosquito OBA Tournament Wrap-up
The Mosquito OBA Riverhawks concluded their season In Chatham at the OBA "D" championship tournament. The Riverhawks had an outstanding tournament, finishing with a 3-2 record over the course of the 3 days. The Riverhawks were one of three teams representing WCBA at the tournament but the Hawks where the only one left playing on Sunday.

In Game 1 the Riverhawks came up against the Ilderton Athletics and dropped a nail biter by a score of 5-4. The game was dominated by good pitching and solid defense. Duncan took the ball for the Riverhawks and went 4 1/3 innings, Pavey came in and pitched 2 innings and Goss came in to get the last two outs to end the game. Pavey and Goss were still available to pitch Saturday, Duncan was not available until Sunday according to OBA rules.

With the game 1 loss the Riverhawks had to take the field early Saturday morning at 830 am for a do or die game against there rivals from Corunna. The game was very intense with both teams fighting to keep their seasons going. At times it seemed more like a football game with a couple collisions at home and one while Aarts was trying to beat out a ground ball to first. The game went back and forth, Corunna lead 4-2 after the 1st, Alvinston regained the lead 6-5 after the second. The game was tied at 7 after 3 innings, Corunna re took the lead 8-7 after 4, the Hawks put up 4 runs in the 5th to take an 11-9 advantage after 5. The Giants chipped away with a run in the 6th, the Riverhawks added another run in the top of the 7th to hold a two run lead 12-10 going into the bottom of the 7th.  The Giants were able to push across 2 runs in the inning to send the game to extra innings. The Riverhawks took advantage of some sloppy defense and timely hits to put up 3 runs and take the lead for good at 15-12, Corunna got 2 runners on base with two out but a ground ball back to Jonesy sealed the victory for the Riverhawks. Van Gorp started for the Hawks with Jonesy finishing it off, each one pitched 4 outstanding innings. Corunna eliminated.

Game 3 was a show down with the Woodslee Orioles, who earlier in the day eliminated Harrow from the tournament. After the tight gut wrenching game earlier in the day the coaching staff as hoping for a less stressful outcome in the afternoon game, and boy were they rewarded! The Hawks came out of the gate fast putting up 8 runs in the top of the 1st and forcing the Orioles to change pitchers after only 5 batters. Goss toed the rubber for the Riverhawks after throwing only 8 pitches on Friday to finish the game against Ilderton, and retired the Orioles in order in the 1st. The Hawks put up 2 runs in the second, the Orioles got on the board with a run despite Goss striking out the side. The score was 10-1 after 2 innings. The Orioles pitching was depleted going into the game and it was obvious in the 3rd, the Hawks game out and put up 16 runs against the tired arms. The Riverhawks shut the Orioles down in the bottom of the 3rd to end the game on a mercy, final score was 26-1. Woodslee eliminated.

The Riverhawks third game on Saturday was supposed to start right after the Woodslee game but mother nature had a different idea. Games were on hold for about 2 hours and the organizers were forced to use only one of the three diamonds for the last two games due to the others being to wet. So the Riverhawks were to play the Binbrook Bisons under the lights at 830 pm. Both teams put up single runs in the 1st inning, Binbrook took the lead in the 2nd inning by adding a run in there at bat. The Riverhawks put up 6 runs in the 3rd to take the lead for good at 7-2. With the weather deteriorating again the Hawks defense and pitching took over and held the Bisons off the score board for the next 3 innings while the offense put up 3 runs in the 4th and 2 more in the 5th to give them a 12-2 victory on a mercy for the second straight game. Goss again started for the Hawks since he was ineligible to pitch Sunday because he pitched two days in a row but still had pitches left to use. Kelly came in after Goss reached his daily pitch limit in the 2nd inning, and was able to finish the next 2 innings and start the 4th before he had to be taken out after 44 pitches to save him for Sunday. Douglas came into and finished the 4th and shut the Bisons down in the 5th to end the rain filled game. Binbrook eliminated.

The Riverhawks had now reached the semi final at 1130 am on Sunday, but came up against the undefeated Mitchell Astros who had eliminated Exeter earlier in the morning. Duncan was back at the rubber for the Riverhawks, he pitched 3 2/3 innings with Pavey finishing the 4th and the 5th. The Astros were an aggressive hitting team, not many pitches fooled there batters. The Astros chipped away at the Hawks scoring at least a run in every inning. The Riverhawks found themshelves down 12-2 after the 4th. Both teams scored in the 5th but the Riverhawks hopes ended in a mercy with Mitchell winning 13-3 in 5 innings. Alvinston eliminated.

This group played amazing baseball all weekend, they pulled together as a team. The offense was spread throughout the team and our pitching was outstanding. This group progressed all season and played there best when they needed to. The "Gooder" Hawks outscored there opponents 60-33 over the tournament and made the coaches and parents very proud of each and every player.

Top 4 in Ontario !! Not to shabby Riverhawks.
See you on the field next spring!!! 
Coach Tom