The North Bay Stingers used tight defence, solid pitching and then amped up their offence at the right time as the local Midget Selects Baseball team went undefeated en route to the SOBA Provincial title on home soil Sunday morning.
Third Baseman Jacob Brown went 3 for 3 and was named the final offensive MVP as the Stingers “mercied” the Mississauga North Tigers 12-1 in the tournament final at the Steve Omischl Sports Complex.
Stingers ace Cody Sutcliffe got the win allowing only 1 run in 4 1/2 innings of work in the final.
Centrefielder Kyle Wilkinson was named the Finals Defensive MVP thanks to a number of nice catches in the outfield, despite playing with an injured shoulder.
Stingers assistant coach Chris Winrow felt their depth at pitching was the key to finishing 5 and 0 this weekend.
"Provinicial tournaments are marathons and not sprints," said Winrow about the Stingers team which finished 4th at the same tournament they hosted last August.
"They (the other teams) have to manage their players in pitch counts and sometimes you have a guy to use too many pitchers. Every one of our pitchers could throw 100 pitches and every other team was in trouble for burning pitchers. Our guys were all eligible. Chad Lacelle (head coach) did a great job and the players went out there and were so calm. The defence was comfortable because the pitching was good."
After winning their first 3 games and moving on to the semi's the Stingers did have some dramatics in the semi-final as they edged the MIssissauga South Twins 1-0. The Stingers scored their only run in the top of the 7th inning to capture the victory.
Winrow also credits catcher Ty Backer who played every inning of the tournament which he says doesn't happen very often at that position.
Photo: Cody Sutcliffe pitching in their 7-0 opening night victory over the Kitchener-Waterloo Wildcats to start the tournament on Friday night. PHOTO BY JAZZ MATHON.
