Black Sox win OBA bantam crown

The Elks 341 Bantam Black Sox have had plenty of success in recent years in the Ontario Baseball Association provincial tournaments and this season was no different.

The Black Sox battled back from deficits all day to defeat Guelph in the championship game of the Ontario Baseball Association Bantam A Championships on Sunday, a tournament that was being held locally at Sinclair Yards in conjunction with the Mosquito A Championships.

The Sox, who had beat Guelph by a 21-0 score on Saturday, got behind and trailed until late in the game when their offence came alive.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the Sox down by a 6-2 score, Kyle Leonard (pictured) stepped up to the plate with two runners on and two out and proceeded to hit a three-run homerun to pull the Sox to within one run at 6-5.

Guelph managed to open up an 8-5 lead in the sixth inning, but the Sox continued their hot offensive play of late and proceeded to score four runs before Guelph recorded their first out and came away with six runs in the inning to take an 11-8 lead.

Jacob Lake, who hit a homerun earlier on in the game, got the offense started in the inning singling in two runs. Wyatt Curry then doubled down the right field line to tie the game at 8-8.

Jeff McAllister drove in Curry, who was the go-ahead run, with a single. A wild pitch and a sac fly rounded out the scoring by the Sox in the inning.

Guelph picked up a single run in the top of the seventh but could not gather any more offense as the Sox held on for the 11-9 victory to win their second straight OBA Bantam Division title and third in five seasons.

Leonard took the win in the game, scattering ten hits over seven innings of work. Leonard struck out seven, while only walking three. Four of the nine Guelph runs were earned.

In addition to their homers, Leonard and Lake also singled in the game. Curry and Jacob Yukich each had a double in the win, while Nelson Bekto picked up a double and a single in the loss for Guelph.

Sox head coach Mike Lalonde said following the game that his team did not play well defensively although he attributed that to the players being tight during the game. He was happy with the way they rebounded to win saying that he was nervous when they fell behind 6-1 early on.

"We didn't play well defensively," Lalonde said. "We just let up, maybe we were tight. For (the players) to rebound like that is great. They didn't play their best, but they played well in the clutch. I was nervous and thought we were in trouble (when it was 6-1) but when we made it 6-5 I thought we could win it."

After the previous win over Guelph on Saturday, Lalonde says that the coaching staff wanted to "make sure they were focussed and prepared for this."

The OBA title was the second straight for three players on the Sox roster as Curry, Leonard and Kyle Diotte were all members of last season's championship team as well. Lalonde says that those three players played a major role in the win.

"They were leaders right from day one," Lalonde said of the three veterans. "The younger guys looked up to them."

Lalonde added that the team really came together after starting the season with 12 players at tryouts.

"From where they came from when we had 12 guys start in the gym," Lalonde said, "everything just fell into place."

The Sox outscored their opponents by a 54-13 margin the included the victories over Guelph on Saturday and Sunday as well as Friday's 22-4 victory over Sudbury.

In other OBA action on the weekend, Aurora won the Mosquito A Championship defeating the Soo entry in the best-of-5 final in three straight games.