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DARREN STEINKE
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Jason Chee-Aloy loves it when the Baseball
Canada Cup is in Medicine Hat, because his Ontario club always
wins.
On Sunday night at Athletic Park, Ontario
outlasted British Columbia in an 8-6 shootout that saw five lead
changes to claim the tournament title for the third time in four
years. Those three championships all occured when the Canada Cup
was held in the Hat, and Chee-Aloy was the head coach for all of
those teams.
Last year, B.C. won the tournament title,
when the event was held in Québec City.
“I think I might have to move here.
Things seem to be good for me in Medicine Hat,” said
Chee-Aloy with a chuckle. “In all seriousness, the team
played well.
“They (the championships) are all
sweet. There is something special about the first one in 2005, but
all three of the wins here have been nailbiters. We’re just
happy to pull them all out.”
With B.C. leading 6-5 going into the
bottom of the sixth, Ontario had one last surge to go ahead 8-6.
Facing a situation with the bases loaded and one out, Andrew Firth
hit a two RBI double to score the first two runs of the rally.
Shortstop Maxx Tissenbaum, who was named the top defensive player
of the tournament, drove in the final run on a sacrifice
grounder.
In the top of the seventh, Ontario
reliever Brett Van Pelt struck out the side to preserve the
win.
B.C. head coach John Haar felt the final
was an entertaining one for the crowd of about 1,000, but he felt
his pitching staff had a bad day. Like Ontario, B.C. sent four
hurlers to the hill.
“This is a tough one, because we did
battle back twice,” said Haar, whose club was in the final
for a 10th straight year. “We had our big guys our horses
ready and healthy to go. They just couldn’t get it done right
from the beginning.”
The game also featured a couple of nice
solo home runs. In the top of the fourth, Brooklyn Foster, a
catcher who was playing in left field, launched a solo bomb over
the left-field fence to tie the game 2-2.
With B.C. leading 4-2, Ontario power
hitter Tanner Nivins led off the bottom of the fifth with a monster
home run to centre left to make the score 4-3. That started a rally
that pushed Ontario back on top 5-4.
In this back-and-forth battle, B.C.
against went out in front 6-5 scoring two runs in the top of the
sixth thanks to an RBI triple by Wes Darvill and an RBI double by
Antonio Paolini. However, those runs were not able to help B.C. in
the end.
“It was a roller-coaster,”
said Foster. “They beat us, and there is not much we can do
about it.
“We tried our hardest. In the end,
they got lucky I guess.”
Johnathon Solazzo was credited with the
pitching in for Ontario, while Van Pelt picked up a save. Jason
Gibson was tagged for the loss for B.C.
Ontario finished the tournament winning
their final seven contests and posting a 7-1 overall record. For
the Ontario players, they head home with a lot of great
memories.
“I just can’t really explain
it,” said Nivins. “It is something that comes in a
dream.
“We just worked hard for it, and
things paid off.” |
