2016 OBA Minor Rookieball AA Champions
Submitted By
Bob Caron on Monday, September 5, 2016
The London West Minor Rookie Tincaps (a.k.a. Cardiac Kids) are the AA champions of Ontario!
It was an amazing weekend of baseball with the team going 6-0 but five of those games were nail biters, with the results questionable until the last out was made.
Game one vs. the Northumberland Jacks had the Tincaps starting strong and after taking a 7-0 lead, hanging on for a 10-7 win.
Game two vs the Milton Mets again had the Tincaps take a big early lead but the Mets refused to give up and eventually they were ahead 16-14 with the Tincaps still to bat in the bottom of the 7th. The "never say die" boys strung together six hits to score three runs and took the game 17-16.
Game three was a different story. The Stouffville Yankees held a big 12-3 lead as the Tincaps began their half of the 4th inning. Who knew that seven and eight year old boys could score 13 runs and not allow a single base runner in three innings? Apparently, our Tincaps boys knew. The result was a 16-12 win. Wow!
Game four vs Newmarket was a back and forth battle that went to extra innings after neither team could score a run in the 7th. In the 8th inning with darkness approaching, the Tincaps scored five runs and while Newmarket had the bases loaded with two outs, a ground out to 1st base ended the game with a 13-11 Tincaps win.
In the game five semi-final it was again the Northumberland Jacks. As in the first game the Tincaps took the early lead and appeared to be heading to a win. The Jacks thought otherwise and ended up ahead 9-8 with our last at bats coming up. Of course these gritty Tincaps boys won 10-9 on a walk off home run. Brad Jones' "good feeling" came true!
The championship game vs Newmarket was a combination of almost flawless defence, consistent hitting and overwhelming cheering from a huge crowd of parents, grandparents and siblings. It ended as an 11-1 win over a very good Hawks team but this #Tincapstrong performance was not going to be denied.
What a season! Thank you boys, families and coaches.