Minor Bantam Tier 1 Reps Win St. Thomas Tournament, News, Minor Bantam Tier 1 Rep, 2017 (Stratford Minor Baseball Association)

This Team is part of the 2017 season, which is not set as the current season.
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May 29, 2017 | Dave Graff | 513 views
Minor Bantam Tier 1 Reps Win St. Thomas Tournament
The SMBA Same Day Auto Minor Bantam Nationals tier 1 rep team started off its 2017 tournament play in style, winning the St. Thomas Cardinal Early Bird Classic A tournament on the weekend. ..

In the final game the Nationals used contributions offensively and defensively from the entire roster of 11 and a brilliant mound performance combo from Naoto Fujita and Camden Daigle in an 8-2 victory over Halton Hills. Fujita and Daigle combined to allow just one earned run on four hits while striking out four. Fujita added a hit, walk and two runs scored at the plate while Erik Smith had a three for four final and scored a run. Catcher Jack Whitehead who did a stellar job handling the Nationals hurlers on the weekend catching every inning on defense, reached base twice on offense and scored both times while Carter Stock, James Koch, Daigle and Carter Musselman added a hit and RBI each.

In the semi final Stock and Daigle gutted it out on the mound against a pesky Orangeville Bengal team, allowing 3 earned runs while striking out 6 in a 7-5 Stratford victory. Daigle crushed three doubles at the plate and knocked in 2 runs to pace the offense. Stock had two hits and a RBI while Fujita and Nathan Graff added RBI hits, short stop Tyler Hotson reached base twice and scored a run and Koch made a fine shoe string catch in left field for the final out of the game to help secure the Nationals spot in the tournament final.

Stratford started round robin play with a 9-4 win over Richmond Hill.  Carter and Caleb Musselman combined to allow three earned runs on four hits while striking out five. Smith and Whitehead paced the offense with three RBI’s a piece and two runs scored while Graff and David Hynd each reached base twice and scored a run and call up Spencer Eidt walked and scored and contributed some great defensive play at third base.

Game two saw Daigle and Stock combine to strike out 11 Waterloo Tiger batters in a 7-0 Nationals win that saw Graff throw a strike from centre field to Whitehead at the plate for the easy tag on a Tiger runner trying to score from second base, ending the game and preserving the shutout for the Nats. Whitehead added two hits at the plate and knocked in a run while Hynd singled and scored twice.

The Nationals remained undefeated after game three but this one ended in a tie after Cambridge plated an unearned run in their last at bat knotting this one at 6-6.  Fujita, Smith and Carter Musselman allowed five earned runs on seven hits on the mound while Whitehead and Daigle both had hits and knocked in two runs to pace the Stratford offense. With the tie the Nationals were able to secure the wild card playoff position setting themselves up for the exciting Sunday finish and an excellent way to start off the young baseball season.

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