Minor Mosquito Chatham Diamonds Sparkle in OBA Win
Chatham Diamonds Minor Mosquito OBA Champs - Submitted Photo
Over the Labour Day Weekend, the Minor Mosquito Chatham Diamonds Baseball Team travelled to St. Thomas to compete in the Ontario Baseball Association’s “B” Provincial Tournament. The Diamonds first game (Friday evening) saw them take on Georgetown, a team that beat Chatham in a close game earlier in the year at a tournament in London. This time Chatham won by a score of 14-2. Pitching was the key to this victory. Craig Spence and Matthew Kling held Georgetown to only 2 runs the entire game, while a total team batting effort combined for the offence.
This win put the Diamonds up against Tillsonburg in their next game Saturday morning. Tillsonburg defeated Chatham 13-10 in a game where the Minor Mosquitos fell behind early but showed too little, too late leaving the bases loaded with 2 outs in the 7th inning. Anderson Fenton, and Austin Haddock pitched well to keep Chatham close.
Next up for Chatham was Bolton, a team they haven’t faced all year. The Diamonds won 27-4 where each offensive inning seemed to produce 8 or 9 runs. Darian Steele, Garret Day, Grayson Ladd and Malcolm Campbell were key contributors.
The Minor Mosquito’s 3rd game of the day saw them play Stratford. A win here would put Chatham into the semi-finals. Matthew Kling and Darian Steele combined to nearly pitch a no-hitter as the Diamonds beat the Indians 14-3.
The semi-final match up had Chatham play Woodstock on Sunday morning. Solid pitching by Craig Spence, Garret Day, and Grayson Ladd was key, but it was Eric Pettipeice’s RBI line drive in the 6th inning that broke a 6-6 tie, giving the Diamonds the 7-6 lead that they would not relinquish. The Diamonds were in the finals. They would play the winner of St. Thomas and Tillsonburg. St. Thomas defeated Tillsonburg, setting up a Chatham vs. St. Thomas final.
In the final, the Diamonds’ bats didn’t slow down at all. Huge hits by Evan Rae, Brendan Hunter, Nolan Lucier, Darian Steele and Matthew Kling, along with the combined pitching of Grayson Ladd, Garret Day and Austin Haddock helped the diamonds to a 10-5 lead in the 4th inning. Then lightning struck, the rain came, and the game was delayed until Monday at 10am. Chatham brought Anderson Fenton in to pitch the final 7 outs, and along with Austin Haddock’s monster double to the fence they added to their lead winning the game and the OBA Provincial Title 14-5.
Coaches Jason Hunter, JP Lucier, Ron Day, and Martin Kling are extremely proud of the boys for their hard work and improvement throughout the season. They also wish to thank the boys’ parents for their support throughout the season.
In the photo above: Front row: Evan Rae, Anderson Fenton, Brendan Hunter & Craig Spence, Second row: Malcolm Campbell, Matthew Kling, Nolan Lucier & Darian Steele, Third row: Eric Pettipiece, Grayson Ladd, Austin Haddock & Garret Day, Back row: coaches- JP Lucier, Martin Kling, Ron Day & Jason Hunter.