St.Thomas Minor Baseball
Cardinal News
STMBA and London Badgers to host Midget Nationals
STMBA is please to announce the successful bid of the London Badgers and London and District Baseball to host the 2010 AAA Midget National Baseball tournament. The tournament will be held August 19 - August 22 at Labatt Park in London, Dan Pulham Memorial Park in London, and right here at beautiful Emslie Field in St. Thomas. Teams from each province as well as our defending champion London Badgers, will be participating in games. St. Thomas will host 11-13 games of the 4 day tournament. Schedule and ticket prices to be available soon.
Minor Mosquito's Capture OBA "A" Title
St. Thomas Optimist Cardinals minor mosquitos have won the Baseball Ontario gold medal for the second straight year. The Ontario A tournament took place Labour Day weekend in north London. The Cardinals dominated teams throughout the season, but saved their best for last, going a perfect 6-0 in the championship event and outscoring opponents 103-19. Hot bats, solid defence and superior pitching were the ingredients in a 43-3 season.
In the final against the Hamilton Cardinals, St. Thomas jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and rode the pitching arm of Kyle Hopper to a 15-1 six-inning mercy. Hopper pitched a two-hitter, waking one batter and striking out eight. His 70th and final pitch induced a flyout to Parker Smith in right field to end the game and ignite the on-field celebration.
Sixth-inning offence by St. Thomas provided the cushion they needed for the mercy as they batted around the order, scoring seven times. In the game, Tim Fallowfield led the way with three RBIs, Ryan Esler knocked in two and Cole Sunderland scored three times. In semifinal action, St. Thomas defeated the Georgina Bulldogs 15-2 in five innings. Fallowfield was the winning pitcher, giving up three hits and striking out seven Bulldogs. Zack Banks and Lane Westgate paced the offence with three RBIs and two RBIs, respectively. Smith was 2-for-2 with one run batted in.
Saturday action saw St. Thomas play three games. In the morning against Burlington, St. Thomas used an eight-run first inning to rout the Bulls 20-2 in four innings. Ryan Verhoeven led the way at the plate, going 2-for-3 and cashing in four runs. Westgate knocked in three runs with a bases-loaded triple. Fallowfield, Drew Foster and Jack Ferguson combined pitching efforts and gave up three hits and fanned six. Georgetown was next up and the Cardinals handled them 12-2 in six innings. Hopper, Foster and Ferguson pitched well and struck out nine Eagles, while giving up three hits and one base on balls.Trevor Bond led the St. Thomas batters going 3-for-3, driving in two runs and scoring twice. Josh Hare scored twice, once on a bunt single and three-base error.
The toughest competition for St. Thomas came from the host North London Nationals. The Nationals opened up an 11-6 lead in the third inning, but clutch hitting from Fallowfield and Esler got the Cardinals within one run. Levi Davie, who was the winning pitcher, shut down the Nationals in the top of the fourth inning and then the St. Thomas bats came alive in the bottom half as 17 batters stepped up to the plate with 13 of them scoring on the way to a 23-12 victory in five frames. The highlight of the inning was a three-run home run by Banks.
If there was a sign of what was about to happen on the weekend, it came Friday night when St. Thomas won 18-0 over the Delaware Dragons as southpaw Verhoeven threw a four-inning no-hitter. Esler and Ferguson each had two RBIs in the victory.
The Cardinals raced unbeaten through the London District Baseball Association season with a 22-0 record, then won four straight games to repeat as league playoff champions. Through the final tournament, the Cards defeated the Oakridge Reds 15-3, the Southwest London 13-9 and 16-6, and North London 7-4. The Cards now have the opportunity to finish off their season as part of the Parade of Champions at the Rogers Centre in Toronto at the end of the month.
Major Mosquito Cards Provincial "B" Champs
It was a weekend three years in the making for the St. Thomas Optimist Cardinals major mosquito baseball team as they captured the Baseball Ontario B championship over Labour Day weekend. The Cardinals defeated Essex 11-1 in five innings in the final. "I can't tell you how happy I am for all 12 boys" manager Derek Brooks said. "Every single player contributed in one way or another this weekend."
The Cardinals got a bye Friday and lost 4-3 to Pelham on Saturday morning. With the double-knockout tournament, the Cardinals faced elimination from then on. Against Milton, the Cards fell behind 3-0 after three innings, but Curtis Gremonprez slapped a single into right field to bring the Cardinal bench to life in the fourth inning. Jake Rick, Jonny Rive, and Michael Mommersteeg all scored to tie the game. Then, with two outs, Brendan Echlin punched a double into centre to score Justin McDonald to give the Cards the lead for good. Milton was eliminated by a final score of 5-3 and the Cards advanced to play Essex.
The Yellowjackets jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first inning. St. Thomas took back the lead by scoring three of the first four batters in the second inning and then Trevor Ross pitched the game of the tournament.
Ross pitched 6 2/3 innings and was one out away from a complete game when the pitch count chased him from the game. Jonny Rive came into close the deal, giving the Cards an 11-4 win and moving them to the semifinal against Wyoming on Sunday. Wyoming got up 1-0 in the top of the first, but the Cards answered back with one of their own in the home half with Rick crossing the plate. The game was deadlocked until the sixth inning when Ross drew a leadoff walk followed by Matthew Brooks' double to the fence. With runners on second and third with one out, Nick Medeiros drove in the go-ahead and winning run with an infield single. The Cards put up three runs in total and defeated Wyoming 4-1.Brooks and Mommersteeg pitched well, combining to strike out 13 Wyoming batters.
Essex was waiting for the final as they received a free pass to the championship. Again, Essex took the lead 1-0 in the top of the first. The Cardinals then pounded out eight runs in the bottom of the first inning with a flurry of hits. Brendan Echlin drove in three runs in the first with a bases-loaded double. The Cardinal defence and a solid pitching performance by Griffin Luce held the Essex team at bay the rest of the way. The game was blown open with a Kyle Lovie grand-slam blast in the fourth inning.
"This win has been a long time coming", said Brooks. "Three years ago our record was 4-24 for the season and last year we improved enough to make it to the OBA final, but being able to capture the championship makes it all worthwhile."
Ontario D Title for Junior Cardinals
The St. Thomas Cardinals defeated the Bolton Braves 12-3 in the Ontario Baseball Association Junior D championship game here Saturday. Bobby Ambrose got the win, allowing one earned run on seven hits with seven strikeouts, two walks and one hit batter. Leadoff man Brennan Brodie reach on a base on balls in the first inning and the Cards were off, scoring two runs in the first, five in the second, one in the third and four more in the sixth. The Braves scored two unearned runs in the fifth inning on two St. Thomas errors, and one run in the sixth. Pete McCormick led the Cardinal attack with three hits. Jordan Satchall, Chris Bayne, Jamie Mann, Craig Vannus all had two hits, with Brett Varey, Mike Wakefield and John Ambrose one hit each.
St. Thomas opened with a 12-5 win over Kincardine with Mann picking up the win allowing three earned runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts, four walks and one hit batter. The defense made three errors in the game while turning two double plays. St. Thomas had a 16-hit attack with every Cardinal batter getting at least one hit led by Jordan Satchall with three.
In Game 2 the Cards defeated Bolton 14-2 as Jon Free got the win allowing one earned run on two hits with three strikeouts, three walks and one hit batter while the defense made two errors. Again, every Cardinal batter hit safely again led by Bobby and John Ambrose with three hits each.
St. Thomas the defeated Kincardine again, this time 7-3. John Ambrose threw 85 pitches for the win allowing two earned runs on five hits with one walk, six strikeouts and two hit batters .The Cards were error free in the game. The offense was led by Wakefield and Brennan Ideson with three hits each, Satchall had two hits and Will Lawrence, Vannus, and McCormick had one hit each.The team had a combined .460 batting average for the tournament.
"We hosted this tournament last year, but we lost two straight and were done," said general manager/first base coach Phil Ambrose. "This year the boys all showed up with their bats, our pitching staff was on and we played well enough defensively to win four straight. It was nice to see John Ambrose, Chris Bayne, Jamie Mann and Pete McCormick all walk away with their first provincial championship in their final year."
"We struggled this year with the weather, injuries and we lost some players who attended school this summer so we played some games with nine players," said manager Tom Arnold. "We stuck it out and played a lot of baseball in July and August and the team started playing their best baseball of the season in the last couple of weeks." St. Thomas also won the London and District Baseball Association championship this season.
St. Thomas Minor Baseball Recognizes Sponsor
On Monday January 8, 2007, St. Thomas Minor Baseball recognized one of the cities local service clubs by officially changing the name of the St. Thomas Minor Baseball Complex to the Centennial Sports Club Minor Baseball Complex. STMBA chose to name the facility in thanks for the tremendous support the service club has given our organization.
Entering the 3rd season of use, the facility on Sauve Avenue has 6 youth diamonds with potential for additional baseball fields in the future. Currently STMBA is in conversation with the city to build a washroom facility on site.
STMBA partners to enhance Emslie Field
St. Thomas Minor Baseball partnered with the St. Thomas Tomcats Jr. Intercounty team and the city of St. Thomas, to design an addition of a scoreboard sign featuring the logo's of both organizations on the electronic outfield scoreboard. The sign will add to the character of this already premier baseball facility.
