But hot bats and aggressive base running, coupled with strong pitching, gave the Dartmouth Arrows the edge and the win, with a 13-4 victory over the host Pizza Delight Peewee AAAYarmouth Gateways in the title game.
Yarmouth had taken a 4-0 lead by the top of the second inning, but Dartmouth answered back with some strong rallies that saw the Arrows bring home four runs in the bottom of the second and five more in the bottom of the third. Yarmouth failed to get any runners on base during the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings and left one base runner on base in the 6th.
Dartmouth had been in position – because of the 10-run rule – to end the championship game in the bottom of the fifth inning with a runner on base who represented the winning run. But the base runner was tagged out while stealing second, which closed the inning and kept the game going.
In the bottom of the sixth Yarmouth struck out the first Dartmouth batter and the next two batters flied out to centre field and the second baseman, pushing the game to a final at-bat for Yarmouth in the top of the seventh. The Gateways went three up, three down.
Yarmouth had advanced to the championship final after a 2-1 record in the round robin, which saw a 6-3 win over Charlottetown, PE, a 5-4 loss to Mirimachi, N.B. and a 19-3 win over Mount Pearl, NL. In the semi-final the Gateways had defeated Summerside, PE, 5-2.
Dartmouth won its semi-final game 15-0 over Mount Pearl, and had a 3-0 record in the round robin with an 8-4 win over St. John’s, a 5-0 win over Summerside and a 7-3 win over Fredericton.
The bronze medal was won by Summerside with a 12-2 win over Mount Pearl.
Yarmouth catcher Max Nickerson was named the Catcher of the Tournament.
Mother Nature didn’t do the event organizers – which included many family members of the host team – any favours. After a prolonged stretch of nice weather in Yarmouth that had gone on for weeks, the opening day of the tournament saw a steady downpour of rain that meant only two of eight scheduled games went ahead. Members of the Yarmouth Gateways even traded the ball field for a kitchen table and a game of Monopoly to pass the time while they couldn’t play. Organizers were able to get in eight games on Day 2, but still had rain delays come the morning of the last day. Still, the tournament was able to wrap as scheduled on Sunday, Sept. 13.
Weekend results can be round here.
