U16s surge battle for flawless week

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

It was another flawless week for Oshawa’s U16 midget elite Legionaires as they worked off their early season success to win games of Mississauga and Stouffville.

After defeating the Mississauga North Tigers 11-5 on the road on May 18, the Legionaires played host to the Stouffville Yankees the very next night at Kinsmen Stadium.

The early going of the game was all Legionaires as they surged ahead to an 8-1 lead after three innings with Lucas Gilbert on the mound, holding the Yankees to only three hits and striking out four.

“Our guys got off to a really good start,” said head coach Ken Babcock.

However, the lead would start to slip away as Stouffville, a strong teach coached under former Toronto Blue Jay Rob Butler, surged back to cut the lead to only three runs.

Oshawa would add another of their own in the bottom of the eighth to carry a 9-5 lead into the final inning.

However, a series of walks in the top of the ninth would see three more Yankees cross home-plate bringing the game within a single run.

With the bases loaded, closing pitcher Braden Babcock made no mistake striking out the final batter on a full-count to end the game 9-8 for the Legionaires.

“It turned out to be a little more exciting than we planned,” coach Babcock says.

He adds that going forward his club will need to fine tune their pitching after walking a total of 12 batters in the game.

“So that’s what we’re working on,” he says. “If you walk 12 batters you’re going to have a lot of guys in play and they’re going to score some runs sometimes.”

This weekend, the U16 and U15 Legionaires take part in the Elite Baseball League of Ontario (EBLO) Showcase Tournament being held at baseball diamonds across Durham Region.

First up for the U16s is a game against Burlington on May 27 at Kinsmen Stadium at 7:30 p.m. The U15s start their tournament at Don Beer Park in Pickering against Oakville at 4:30 p.m.