Take me out to the ball game

I have never watched the Raptors play basketball or any NBA team for that matter. I was a football guy in school and didn’t like basketball. ,Must have been something to do with my stature and my lack of ability to run and bounce a ball at the same time!

Now since the Leafs are done and the Jays are in the tank, maybe a guy should take the time and try watching a little bit. After all they are from Toronto. Good luck in the NBA finals, Raptors.

By the way, I’m picking St Louis to win the Stanley Cup. They have never won the Cup and have been in the league since 1968. There’s a lot of Canadian boys on the team as well. Plus the Bruins beat out the Leafs, so I wouldn’t want to cheer for them! (Just in case you didn’t know the Leafs haven’t won the cup since 1967.)

On to the local  baseball scene. Our Peewee Sox have been doing really well in league play this year and in fact I believe they are undefeated. I’m not really surprised because this team has a ton of talent on it. This past Thursday, at home, they defeated St. Paul 13-6.

Timmy ‘Freight Train’ Cardinal taking the mound pitching for the first two innings. Bo ‘Diddley’ Fontaine and ‘Kid Kade’ Fontaine sharing the middle relief duties. Sam ‘Spiderman’ Rogal coming in as the closer shutting them down one two three.

At the dish Spiderman doing some heavy damage as well, cranking out a in the park home run. His cousin Josef the ‘Red’ Theriault with two singles. Cyclone Cole Pierce, ‘Top Gunner’ Crawford, Aidan Peterson and ‘Bo Diddley’ all getting on base  with a single and driving in runs. Jax Gaulton with his first hit of the year and it was a beauty double. ‘Kid Kade’ also pounding a double to deep left center field.

In bantam provincial action this past weekend skipper Tyler Warawa and the Lakeland Northstars won two out of three games in Edmonton. Losing the first game to St. Albert then defeating Grand Prarie and South Jasper Place.

The first game the Northstars played the top team in N1. Turned into a pitchers duel, with the Northstars losing 8-6.

Seth Cobourne and Keegan Locke both pitched excellent in the game. Cody Archibald laid down a great bunt to get to first. However after sliding back on an attempted pick off, he broke a bone in his hand and is out for three weeks.

The next game was against another tough team in Grand Prairie. Zach Lapointe pitched a fantastic game only allowing four runs over four innings. Andon Ballas came into finish the last three innings and was lights out. Plus he hit a 3 run dinger in the top of the 7th to put the Northstars ahead. Kobe Warawa made a diving stop and threw out the runner to end the game for a Northstars 9-6 win.

In the final game on Sunday, the boys played the host South Jasper Place Jays. The 9am start was a little early as the boys didn’t start playing till 11am. Colton Lacoursiere pitched a great two shutout innings to give the Northstars a chance.

After the Jays took an early 4-2 lead, Brent Hoshowski came in the 5th inning to try and hold the Jays off the scoresheet and did an excellent job only allowing one run. Brent had a great weekend playing shortstop and making some huge defensive plays. Lead off hitter Nolan Dechaine started the rally in the bottom of the 7th.

The Northstars were down 5-2 and Nolan hit one off the fence for a long single to start the inning. Next up was Evan Gauthier and he crushed a two run shot over the right field fence, it was a no doubter. Down 5-4 with two out the Northstars found a little extra gas in the tank and scored two more runs to win the game 6-5. Izaak Warholik played some great defence all weekend and had some timely hits. Kamden Brunet is always a threat to steal when getting on base and showed his wheels over the weekend.

Overall it was a great weekend and walking away with a 2-1 record, puts us at 4-1 and at the top of the division.  That means Tier 1 ball for June, but hopefully the boys can keep rolling.