The Midland Twins 16U team travelled to
Caledon July 25-27 to take part in their annual tournament and came away
as Champions!
The weekend started with a Friday game
against Halton Hills team, where the boys used great pitching and balanced
hitting in a 15-0 victory.
Game 2 was against a very good Caledon team
who had already beaten us earlier this season, and who we had tied earlier in
the week. The boys were down one going
into the bottom of the 7th and battled back thanks to some clutch
hitting performances to pull out a 5-4 victory.
Our last round robin game was against Martingrove whose pitching kept the Twins off balance all game. The Twins pitching was just that much better though, and the boys scratched enough runs across to take a 6-2 victory and the 3-0 top seed in our bracket.
Sunday would see the boys match up against a strong St. Thomas team in the semis. Once again, strong pitching was the recipe for success as the Twins held the Cardinals to just one run and took the game 8-1. Caledon was also successful in their semi final matchup meaning a rematch in the finals was all set.
The Twins did not disappoint as they got off to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st and never looked back. Great pitching and an explosive offense featuring 4 doubles allowed the Twins to pull out a 10-0 victory and emerge as tournament Champions!
Over the course of the weekend the boys had to use only four pitchers and allowed only 6 earned runs in 5 games, thanks to the brilliant pitching efforts by Benny, Lambo, Darcy and Turbo. Benny, Lambo and Turbo all pitched complete games, and Darcy was one out away from that. That efficiency and ability to keep fresh arms for Sunday was instrumental in the boys’ success.
Defensive highlights were seen all over the field! Our 1B’s Trent and Ducky did an outstanding job all weekend making pick after pick, helping to keep runners off the base paths. Beauch was a beast on 3rd making multiple big plays for us including one bare handed scoop and throw to first as well as starting two double plays. The middle infield was held down by G, Cars, Turbo and Manny who flashed leather multiple times and did a great job of laying the tags on would be base stealers to cut them down. The OF featured Jacko up the middle with Darcy, Coop, Bubs and Turbo playing the corner OF spots. The crew was outstanding and played error free baseball while making multiple running catches over the weekend. Our backstops were Benny and Cars who both did an excellent job of receiving and controlling the running game.
Offensively, everyone played a part. The top of the lineup with Jacko, Bubs, Beauch, Trent, Cars and Turbo were all over the scoresheet with multiple extra base hits including two triples from Beauch and Jacko and nuke doubles by Trent, Turbo, Bubs and Cars.
But, the second half of the order were key contributors as well with many timely at bats with either a key walk or base hit from Benny, G, Ducky, Manny, Coop, Darcy, and Lambo. Doing the little things right, like Benny stealing second on a back pick, Darcy and G’s well executed bunts, Declan and Dylan’s clutch hit and walk and Coop’ and Lambo’s pinch running assignment. Lambo actually stole second and then came in to score the game tying run in our second round robin game against Caledon!
The coaching staff would like to thank all the parents for getting the kids there all weekend. It was a lot running back and forth, but worth it in the end.
We would also like to thank our sponsor, FullLine Electronics, not just for this season, but for all their years of generously sponsoring this group.
Lastly, we would like to thank all our volunteers. Colleen, Kate, Blair and Krista. We couldn’t do it without you!!! Great job Twins!
We are looking forward to the YSBA’s August 15-17!
GO TWINS GO!