Black Sox Rolling at OBA’s

The Soo Black Sox have found themselves in a good position heading into the final day of competition at this year’s Ontario Baseball Association Midget ‘A’ Championships.

After their first three games, the Sox are 3-0 and have outscored their opponents by a 37-6 score. The Sox opened the tournament on Friday afternoon with a convincing 15-1 win over Ajax. The Sox picked up strong offensive performances in the game from Tyler Binkley, who hit a two-run homerun along with a double and a single in the win, as well as Justin Soltys who had a single and double and added four runs scored. Adam Carricato added two singles and a double in the win. The Sox also got a solid pitching performance out of J.J. Bergamin, who threw five solid innings for the win.

In Friday’s other action Whitby whipped Barrie 11-1 in the opening game of the tournament while Oakridge got past Guelph 5-1 and Sudbury defeated Kingston 6-1 in the late game of the night.

After their big win on Friday night the Black Sox opened up action on Saturday with a matchup against Whitby. The Sox opened the scoring in the game in the top of the second inning when Kyle Lafreniere stroked a two-out, two-run double to put the locals up 2-0. Whitby managed to get one run back to cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning.

In the top of the sixth, the wheels fell off for Whitby in a sense as the Black Sox managed to load the bases with no outs. After David Dadalt stroked a single to bring in one run, Ryan Plante, the next hitter in the order, stroked another single to bring in another run. A hit batsman, a walk and a wild pitch later, the score was 7-1 for the Black Sox and the rally still wasn’t over as Justin Soltys and Dadalt, who was up for the second time in the inning, both hit two-run doubles to up the score to 11-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth.

In the bottom of the inning Whitby managed to score three runs to cut the lead to 11-4 but that was as close as they would come as the Sox held on for the victory to improve to 2-0.

Following the Soo-Whitby game, Oakridge squeaked by Sudbury in the 12:30 game by a 7-6 score to set up a game between the only two undefeated teams left in the tournament to cap off the days action. Prior to that though, a number of other games were left to be played. Barrie eliminated Ajax beating them 13-10, while Kingston defeated Guelph 9-8 and eliminated them from the tournament. Whitby handed Sudbury their second straight loss defeating them 7-1 to eliminate them. Kingston managed to fend off elimination defeating Barrie by an 18-7 score to eliminate them from action. All that led into the final game of Saturday’s action between the Black Sox and Oakville.

Backed by a solid pitching performance from Tyler Binkley and plenty of run support the Sox came out of Saturday’s action as the only undefeated team left in the tournament by defeating Oakridge by an 11-0 score.

The Sox opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning on a throwing error by Oakridge that allowed one run to score. An RBI single from Lafreniere and a sacrifice fly from Soltys helped the locals build a 3-0 lead. A wild pitch in the inning added two more runs as the Sox came out of the inning with a 5-0 lead. The following inning started off well as Jeff Buchan stroked a double that cashed in two runs and then scored himself on a delayed double steal as he dashed for home on a throw to attempt to get the runner at second. Adam Carricato also knocked in a run in the inning to make the score 9-0 Sox through three innings.

In the bottom of the fourth inning the Sox managed to load the bases and cashed in two more runs, the first coming after Rick Mills was hit by a pitch and the second coming off a single by Soltys. The Sox held on the rest of the way for the win to keep their record perfect.

Black Sox coach Mike Lebel said following the Whitby win that he was extremely pleas with the way his team has been playing thus far in the tournament by taking advantage of mistakes, specifically in the Whitby game, but realizes that Sunday’s action is where it really counts. Lebel was also pleased with his pitching from Tyler Binkley, who put in a strong performance against Whitby.

“We definitely took advantage of their mistakes,” Lebel said. “(Binkley) threw a lot of strikes and was in control the whole way. Now we have to come out tomorrow the same way we did today.”

Binkley was also pleased with his performance in the win adding that he has been pitching very well of lat and his last few starts have been similar to his start Saturday against Whitby,

“The last couple of times I’ve pitched, I’ve thrown like that,” Binkley said following the win, “so it’s been great.”

Binkley added that the offensive production has been solid throughout the lineup and that confidence is a big part of the success of the Sox of late.

“Our offense has been booming so far (in the tournament) so it’s been great,” Binkley said. “Confidence is the biggest part of it. Hopefully it swings in to the next game.”

Sunday morning will see more action as the Black Sox, who are expecting to start Kyle Sayers, will face off against Kingston at 9:30 at Sinclair Field E, while at the same time Oakridge and Whitby will square off at Queen Elizabeth Field. The loser of the Oakridge-Whitby game will be eliminated while the winner will be a part of the championship. The championship game is scheduled for noon at Sinclair, with a second game, if necessary, scheduled for 2:3 p.m. also at Sinclair.

(Photo: Black Sox pitcher J.J. Bergamin in action during the Black Sox opening game on Friday evening against Ajax. Courtesy: John Naccarato)