For the third time in four years, the Carte Blanche Rotarians are heading to the finals of the North Bay Men's Senior Baseball League.
They have come up short in their last two attempts and are waiting to see who their opponents are when the series starts this coming Sunday.
CBR qualified for the finals with a 4-3 win over the Moose Cookhouse on Monday evening. The Carte Blanche Rotarians jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second with Clarke Heipel and Joe Turner driving in the runs.
In the third, Heipel again came up with a run scoring single to extend CBR's lead to 3-1 at that point. Matthew Sookram pitched a complete game for CBR.
After allowing one run to score on a sacrifice fly in the 4th, he got into trouble in the 6th as the first four batters reached safely to tie the game 3-3. But he induced three pop ups, including one with the bases loaded to keep the game even, going into the final inning and a half. In the bottom of the 6th, Mike Dowdall stole home on a wild pitch to help CBR regain their one run lead. With two out in the 7th and final inning, The Moose Cookhouse caught a break as an error let them get the tying run on base. But on the next pitch catcher Adam Campbell threw a gun to Dowdall at second, stopping the would be base stealer and ending the game.
Jacob Brown was terrific on the mound for the Moose Cookhouse, throwing all six innings.
In the elimination game that followed, the North Bay Midget Stingers defeated Don's Pub and Grill by a score of 6-2, sending them to a semi-final contest on Wednesday against the Moose Cookhouse.
The Stingers have survived two elimination games already, with a third on the way, while the Moose Cookhouse faces their first and only elimination contest.
The winner of the Moose Cookhouse and the North Bay Midget Stingers will meet the Carte Blanche Rotarians in the first of a best of three finals on Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Steve Omischl Sports Complex.
