PeeWee Jays fall early in annual CNE baseball tournament

August 20, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Jake Courtepatte

The Aurora Jays PeeWee baseball team traveled to Toronto Monday morning to kick off their first ever entry in the annual Lions CNE PeeWee Baseball Tournament.

With the Canadian National Exhibition already underway, this marks the 58th year of what is the oldest and most prestigious event of its kind in Ontario for 12-13 year olds.

Having made the finals of their home tournament in May of this year and finishing third in the Bolton minor baseball tournament at the end of June, both the coaches and athletes made the trip to Toronto with high hopes.

The Jays met the Oshawa Legionnaires in the first game of the single-elimination tournament, a team that finished 13 – 6 in the Eastern Ontario Baseball Association.

The Jays pitchers were exhausted having played multiple games over the weekend, making it difficult for the team to do what coach Mark Elbaum calls “burn an arm” – have one pitcher throw 75-80 pitches before resting up for later in the tournament.

Despite a strong showing, their tournament run was over after one game as they fell to Oshawa 8 – 4.

The PeeWee Jays now head to Burlington for the Ontario Baseball Association Championships on Labour Day Weekend, to represent the York-Simcoe Baseball Association.