11U Aurora Jays stifle the Stouffville Yankees 11-1 in YSBA Action

The 11U Aurora King Jays continued their winning ways with a convincing 11-1 victory over the Stouffville Yankees on Tuesday evening at Bethesda Park.

The Jays, somewhat depleted by two absent players, integrated two call-ups into Tuesday's lineup in a warm-up game for their weekend tournament in Kanata.

The Jays, gold medalists in three tournaments this season, struck first at the top of the second when Reid Gervais led off the inning with a triple that was launched down the first baseline.

Dominic Orlando, the Jays starting pitcher who picked up the W, helped his own cause by lacing a double over second base to plate Gervais and give the Jays a 1-0 lead. Mattheus Gurunluoglu increased Aurora's lead to 2-0 when his single cashed in Orlando.

The Yankees struck back at the bottom of the inning to narrow the margin to 2-1, but the Jays pounded out four runs in both the third and fourth innings to take most of the suspense out of the YSBA contest.

The Jays' potent buzz-saw offence manifested itself at the top of the third with timely power and production. Jack Kelson launched a two-out clutch double-down the first base line and Evan Kapernekas followed with an RBI triple that split the centerfield gap to restore the Jays' two-run lead. Arlo Angeloni plated Kapernekas with an RBI double to put Aurora up 4-1. After Liam Brousseau drew a key walk to prolong the inning, Gervais smashed a 2-out, 2-RBI double into the left centre gap to put the Jays up 6-1. Remarkably, Gervais's double was the Jays' fourth extra base hit of the inning.

Jays reliever Arlo Angeloni replaced effective starter Dominic Orlando on the mound in the bottom of the third and bolted the door shut. Angeloni pitched to contact and let his excellent defense play in a very efficient 1-2-3 inning to preserve the Jays' five-run margin.

Orlando responded to his relief pitcher's neat effort on the mound by drawing a lead-off walk, swiping second on a wild pitch, and scoring on an overthrow by the Yankees. The error at shortstop proved costly as the Jays hit three more doubles to increase their lead to 10-1.  Angeloni repeated his magic on the mound by inducing the Yankees into another 1-2-3 inning to maintain the Jays' 9-run lead.

The Jays added their final run at the top of the fifth inning, initiated by Vincent Scarpino's lead-off single. After Jack Kelson advanced Scarpino to third on a groundout, Liam Brousseau's two-out RBI single plated Scarpino to put the Jays up 11-1.  It was a lead they would not relinquish, due to the relief pitching performance of Tuesday's closer Alton Amiti and the Jays exceptional defence in the bottom of the fifth. Amiti induced a GO5-3 to get a quick out, surrendered an infield single, and then pitched to contact to keep his teammates on their toes. The last two outs—an FO6 and an LO8—retired the Yankees and clinched the victory.

In addition to the offensive fireworks and steady pitching, the Jays played flawless outfield defense from the start of the game to its end, led by call-up Charlie Owens's steady play in centerfield.  Owens recorded five putouts to back his pitching staff.

Head Coach Kevin Charbonneau acknowledged his team's accomplishments both defensively and offensively.

“It was a clean sheet game.  We got to look at our pipeline of players and we got our pitchers some quality innings.” Coach Charbonneau “liked the mood of the team tonight.  Everyone was into it and we got great contributions from our call-ups. Charlie Owens and Lucas Soares both had good games for us tonight.” 

The convincing regular season win versus Stouffville sets up Coach Charbonneau's young charges for their tournament-opening game versus the Cambridge Cubs in Kanata.

It was the Head Coach's hope that his squad would “carry the momentum from tonight into Friday night.”

By Jim Stewart