Annette Mosquito Black Select - 2017 OBA Provincial Champions!!!!

A different hero for every inning.

That’s how you could describe the Annette mosquito select team’s run at the Ontario Baseball Association championships.

Our mosquito select players became the first to bring a provincial championship to Ravina Gardens. (Followed the same weekend by our older brothers in peewee!)

For a team that gelled quickly during the season and dominated during loop play, things were different during the OBA playoffs in Orillia against some of Ontario’s best select baseball teams.

Annette won 10-6 on Friday night against the Mississauga Majors, with strong pitching performances from Cam Fournier and Zach Shaw getting our last tournament of the year started on the right footing.

Saturday, we opened play against a tough Cambridge team and lost. Because it was a double-elimination tournament, one more loss would have meant an early exit for Annette Black.

But in the second Saturday game, we beat Southwest London 15-2 on the shoulders of more great pitching from Sammy Pernice, setting us up for a rematch with Cambridge in a night game.

Thanks to amazing pitching from Riley Clark, Max Wong and Russell Duhamel, Annette cruised to a 7-4 win, which meant … Sunday baseball.

After a lengthy rain delay, we finally got things started against the Mississauga Twins. Riley again set the stage for us with a great start before handing off to Adam Kim. We won 9-3 on another huge team effort. Adam tripled, and Josh Bullock, our rock-solid catcher, got another key out with a bulls-eye thrown down to second to gun down a runner trying to steal, sending a cold shiver down the Mississauga bench.

With the Annette win, Mississauga, who had yet not lost in the tournament, would play the winner of a coin flip between Annette and the Richmond Hill Phoenix.

Richmond Hill won the toss and coach Rick shrugged.

“I’d rather be playing baseball than sit around for two hours,” he said.

Moving to a new diamond, the second game against Mississauga started with the bats hot. Annette jumped out to a 3-1 lead thanks to a gem of a pitching performance from Conor Blessing.

With Annette holding onto a 2-run lead, Zach came in and did his job, throwing strikes. But the Twins are a great team and their bats were solid. Riley came in with the bases loaded and no one out. When the inning was over, Annette was fortunate to be down by only one run.

That set the stage for more heroics.

Sammy led off the bottom of the 7^th with a key walk, Josh hit a single and Russell walked to load the bases with no one out. Carter Westhead smacked a line drive to right field to score two runs, an exciting 8-7 walk-off win.

Cam, our solid pitcher from Friday, began the OBA championship game against Richmond Hill. The teams traded runs over the first few innings before the Annette bats began to mash.

And as the bats came alive, Dylan Wilson did his imitation of a big league infielder, laying out to catch a foul ball, making a great play on a short hop for an out, and calling out support for his pitchers.

In the last inning, another hero. Jordan Raposo smashed a ball to left field that was good for a triple and two RBI, that put Annette up 15-5, closing out the game, and Annette’s season.

What an amazing year of baseball!