Mosquito Jays are provincial champs

September 7, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

The AA Mosquito Aurora King Jays capped off their successful season last weekend with the biggest prize of them all.

In an all York-Simcoe matchup on Sunday, the Jays captured the Ontario Baseball Association provincial championship with a finals win over the Barrie Red Sox.

Their path to victory started off on the wrong foot Friday, dropping the first game of the tournament to the Niagara Falcons by a score of 7 – 4. The double-knockout nature of the tournament left the Jays in a do-or-die situation, where one more loss would knock them out of contention.

Returning to the diamond in Burlington on Saturday, Aurora King rattled off three-straight wins over the North Toronto Athletics, Guelph Royals, and Halton Hills Eagles.

Two more wins followed in Sunday’s action, outscoring their opponents 27 – 4 in the process. That set up a meeting with the Red Sox in the evening final, a battle between the top two teams in the York-Simcoe Baseball Association.

The game was a pitcher’s battle through the first six innings, playing to a scoreless tie into the final frame. As the away team, Aurora put five runs on the board in the top of the inning before Barrie almost completed the comeback by scoring four of their own in the bottom.

With the tying run on second base and two outs, Aurora put the game away for good with a thrilling swing-and-miss strike three call.

The win is just the latest in a long line of accomplishments for the Mosquito Jays, who were the champions of the Newmarket Silver Bat tournament just last month. They followed up with a second-place finish at the Richmond Hill AAA tournament, a loop above their AA standard, prompting a promotion to the AAA level for the 2017 Minor PeeWee Jays.

The Jays also finished atop the YSBA regular season standings, playing to a record of 19 – 3.

Congratulations to Brennan Badger, Nicholas Burdo, Darcy Carter, Luke Davison, Blake Duyn, Fionn Keon, Nathan Lambert, William McKenzie, Gabriel Oldenhof, Tyler Pridham, Finn Walker, Nathan Windle, assistant coaches David Walker and Ryan Windle, and head coach Greg Davison on a fantastic season.