Stingers continue to make a buzz

The North Bay Stingers won their 4th baseball tournament with a victory in Sudbury. Front row (left to right) Tyler Besner, Joey Puddister, Nick Scott, Joe Poeta, Chris Kangur, Jake Tougas. Back row (left to right)Dave Blanchfield (Sponsor), Matt Blanchfeild, Miguel Champagne, Dale Valade, Jeremy Poeta, Thomas Hamilton, Ryan Scott, Tim Scott (coach), Larry Tougas (coach). Photo submitted to BayToday.ca

The North Bay Stingers Rep Bantam Baseball team continued its winning ways on the weekend capturing its fourth straight tournament victory over the weekend in Sudbury.

In their early games they defeated Sudbury and Valley East. To finsh 1st in pool play they defeated Sault Ste Marie Selects 7-5 to go 3-0 in round robin play. The game against the Soo was a very entertaining game from start to finish. The Stingers grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning on Ryan Scott and Chris Kangur RBI singles cashing in Miguel Champagne and Jake Tougas. In the Soo home half they quickly jumped all over Stinger starting pitcher Jake Tougas for 3 runs and a 3-2 lead. Tougas settled down and pitched 5 strong innings allowing his team to take a 5-4 lead into the 6th inning. Dale Valade held a late surge by the Soo for a hard fought 7-5 victory. Valade led the way with 2 hits for the Stingers. Other hits went to Tougas, Ryan Scott, Chris Kangur, Jeremy Poeta, Joey Puddister, Matt Blanchfield, Tyler Besner, Joe Poeta and Nick Scott.

In semi-final play, the Stingers easily defeated Valley East to advance them into the championship game against the Soo Black Sox. This time the Stingers jumped all over ace starter Chris Jackson and knocked him out of the game leading 7-1 after 3 complete innings. Starting pitcher Dale Valade cruised early but numerous walks and costly errors by the Stingers allowed the Soo to pull within one at 7-6. The Stingers added to their lead in the 5th scoring 3 times to increase their lead to 10-6 only to see the Soo answer with 4 runs in top of the 6th inning to tie the game at 10-10. At this time Miguel Champagne came in to keep the score even in the late innings. The Stingers began the 6th with back to back walks to Puddister and Jeremy Poeta. With 2 runners on Valade cashed in 2 with a double and Tougas cashed in Valade with another double. Ryan Scott drove in Tougas with a single.

Overall, Ryan Scott led the way with 3 hits for North Bay.
Tougas and Valade had 2 hits, 2 walks and 4 runs scored each. Champagne, Kangur and Thomas Hamilton each had 2 hits for the Stingers.

The Stingers will now play the Sudbury Majors next Sunday in an exhibition doubleheader at Veterans Field. Then the Stingers will be off to Toronto Labour Day Weekend to play in the All-Ontario Select Baseball Championships.

Submitted to BayToday.ca

**********************************
We do news, differently

BayToday.ca is privately owned and operated, delivering your news 24/7, 365 days a year-for over three years now.

Our large and diverse readership has one thing in common: an interest in the very latest news from North Bay.

Collation of BayToday.ca's server log files by the respected Urchin Analysis shows more than 10,000 visits a day, with an average length of stay of five minutes, 17 seconds.

Isn't it time you made BayToday.ca your home page?

Just click here and we'll make sure you're never out of the loop on all the news from your hometown.